True Demons
by Danny vs A Month
Summary: A murderer among murderers. As long as someone pays me, I'll kill whoever I get pointed toward. I don't need anyone, or anything. Just give me my money and my job and stay the hell out of my way. And if you piss me off, God help you. If he can.
1. Chapter 1

Recruited Murderer

I take a step back, allowing the guard's sword to crash to the ground in front of me, then slash out to my side, splitting his torso open. He collapses to the ground, choking on his own blood as it floods his lungs. I ignore him, stepping over his head and walk toward my final target. She's attractive. Short auburn hair, blue eyes wide with terror, tears streaming down her pale cheeks. It's a shame she has to die. And yet, that face. My chest aches at the thought of killing her.

"Don't look at me like that," I say. "It's hard enough killing someone as pretty as you when you're _not_ looking so helpless. Come on, just smile. Or get angry. Something. _Anything_ other than that."

"P-Please!" she pleads. "Please don't kill me!"

"I have to," I say. "I was payed handsomely to make sure you don't go home tonight."

"Please!" she begs. "W-What if I go home a different night!?"

"You know that's not what I meant," I say, raising my sword over my head, the woman pressing back against the wall, arms raised as though to shield herself. "Now you're just being difficult."

"Please!" she shrieks. "I'll make it worth your while!"

"And just how will you do that?" I ask.

"You can use my body!" she says. "Whenever and however you want! And as many times as you want!"

"Really now," I say. "Now you're just not thinking things through. You shouldn't make that kind of offer to someone immoral enough to murder as many people as I have. I've already killed twenty of your guards. If you make a promise like that to someone like me, you may just end up chained up in a dungeon somewhere, existing only to pleasure me whenever I s choose until you die. Would you prefer that?"

She stares at me, eyes wide with fear. "I-I..."

I sigh heavily, pulling out a knife and tossing it to the ground at her feet. "Here. You'll be needing this." Then, I turn to leave, resting the flat of my sword's blade on my shoulder as I walk away. As I take my third step, one of the woman's feet slaps the ground behind me and I smirk. "Right on schedule." I flip my sword off of my shoulder and to reverse grip, driving it backward. I feel it impale the woman as I crouch and lift the sword higher, and the knife I gave her clatters to the ground in front of me as the woman's blood splatters down over me. I sigh, standing up straight and rip the sword back out before scooping up my dagger and continuing on my way.

"One more tick removed," I smile. "I think the boss should be pretty happy with me. I finally completed my fiftieth job."

I walk out of the alleyway and stop, staring down the road where a single girl a little younger than me is watching me with a cold stare, her katana drawn and held out to her side. I sigh. "Have you come to kill me?"

"You're causing trouble," she says.

"Oh please, Akame," I snort. "If you really cared that I killed people, I'd already be dead. You're much more deadly than me."

"Hand it over and you'll be allowed to live," she says.

I begin to laugh, bending forward at the waist and holding my free hand to my stomach as it starts to hurt. I can feel her glaring at me, but I ignore it. Finally, I manage to calm myself, wiping a tear of mirth, as well as quite a bit of blood, away from my eye. "Man, I never knew you had a sense of humor Akame. You never cease to impress me."

"I wasn't joking," Akame says.

"Lying, then," I say, resting my sword on my shoulder again. "If I hand it over to you, you kill me, not that keeping it would change anything. It would just be that much easier for you."

"If you don't hand it over, I'll kill you and take it anyway," Akame says.

"And yet, the alternative of you taking it then killing me anyway doesn't really seem like it's all that alternative to me," I say. I point my sword at her. "If you want to get your hands on it, you'll have to kill me for it."

She's silent for several long moments before sheathing her sword, sighing heavily. "I suppose there's no other option. Come with me. You'll join Night Raid."

Again I snort in amusement. "Yeah, I'll take a solid pass. I'm content with my own group thanks."

"It doesn't matter how content you are," Akame says. "They're dead. Here's your pay for your most recent job." She holds up a bag of money. "Consider it your recruitment fee."

"I said I'm not joining Night Raid," I say. "Give me my money and leave."

"Let's go," she says, turning and walking away.

I stare after her before sighing, and pinching the bridge of my nose, following. "Jeez. Fuckin' women. I swear."

* * *

I stare at the silver-haired woman before me. She's got on a black bodysuit, has armor covering her right arm, or maybe it's a prosthetic, and has a metallic eyepatch over her right eye. She could be pretty, if it wasn't for the fact that she terrified me. To be the leader of Night Raid, she'd have to be incredibly skilled at killing.

"So, will you join us?" she asks.

"I don't really have much choice now that you killed the rest of my group and then brought me to your secret hideout," I say, looking around and trying to memorize faces.

There's a man with black hair sticking forward off of his head and shaped into a heart. Akame, with her long black hair, black dress, red gauntlets, and her red katana, which can curse someone to die with only a single cut. There's a woman maybe a little older than me with long violet hair and light purple clothes with a gigantic set of scissors on her back, sharpened on the outside as well, a girl maybe sixteen at most with some kind of gun beside her and pink clothes t match her pink hair, which is kept in pair of long pink ponytails, and a woman roughly my age with short golden blonde hair, a black tube top that barely covers the bottom half of her breasts and maybe an inch of her abdomen below them, a leather belt with a silver buckle on the front, black panties, white detachable pant legs, and a white scarf with black on the left side. But the one that seems to stand out the most is the only one who's watching me with something other than suspicion, dislike, or a calculating stare. Clearly he's the newest. He has messy brown hair, an off-white sweater over a white collared shirt, jeans, and a sword on his back with a golden guard, the front and back of which are curved like the outsides of a bow tie and sharpened. From what I can see, he's the only one besides the boss who doesn't have an Imperial Arms.

"Answer her or we'll kill you," Akame says, gripping her sword's hilt.

"Of that I have no doubt," I say. "Fine. I'll join."

"Good," the boss says, standing. "Sheele will test your abilities."

"And that would be..."

"Me," says the one with the scissors. "I'm Sheele. Pleasure to meet you."

I stare at her for a moment before responding. "I'm sure." I draw my sword. "Shall we?"

She draws and strikes with the massive pair of scissors so fast that I'd have missed it if I blinked. Fortunately, I didn't. I bend backward under the slash and she spins, slashing again. I block the slash with my sword and step forward, punching at her. However, she separates the blades f her scissors and spins it, knocking my sword downward with the one remaining against it, then knocking my other arm away with the other, rendering both arms completely useless while also getting the blades on either side of me. I leap into the air, barely escaping the blades, and flip, slashing downward at her, only for her to use the handle of her weapon to block the slash, watching me with a cold stare. I land on my feet and drop, sweeping at her legs and she jumps over it, only for me to spin, slamming a kick into her abdomen, launching her backward. The scissors stab into the ground beside me and I lean on them, watching Sheele as she stands.

"Good enough?" I ask.

"Yes," the boss says. "You're skilled. It's your loyalty I'm concerned with."

"As long as I'm getting payed, I'll be loyal," I say.

"Good," the boss says. "Because we're sending you on a job. You'll be paired with Sheele and Mine."

"Your what?" I ask.

"No you idiot!" the one with pink hair snaps. "Mine! It's my name!"

"Oh," I say, shrugging. "If you say so."

She glares at me but I turn and walk away. I head out of the hideout and to a river nearby, beginning to clean the dried blood off of my sword. It's nothing too fancy. It's got an all white double-edged blade about three feet long, a guard that extends about an inch past the edges of the blade, and a smooth black grip. It's an heirloom of my family, though if they knew how I was using it now, they'd crawl out of their graves to put me in my own.

"Hey asshole, we're leaving!" Mine snapped, stepping out of the trees behind me just as I finish drying my sword.

"Alright," I nod, standing. "Lead the way."

"Don't you want to know who we're killing?" Sheele asks.

"Not particularly," I shrug. "It doesn't really matter to me who I kill. one death is no different than any other."

"What if that death is your friend's?" Sheele asks.

I shrug. "Never had any friends."

"That's sad," Sheele says sympathetically. "I'll be your friend."

"I'm sure you'll change your mind by the time we get back here," I say. "Anyway. After you two."

They both nod, turning and walking away. I walk after them, twirling my dagger in my free hand. We walk for a while, reaching the capitol and heading into the upper part of the city where the wealthier citizens live. Then, finally, we stop, climbing onto the roof of a building where Mine pointed to a large mansion.

"That's our target's building," Mine says. "Sheele and I will handle killing the target. You just get a distraction out front and kill any guards that come out after you."

"No problem," I say, dropping into the street and drawing my sword from my back, walking up to the house.

There are stairs leading up to the door, so I stop at a flat level about halfway up and pick up a stone about the size of my fist, hurling it through a window. A moment later, the door bursts open and several guards step out.

"Sup boys," I say. "Your boss home? I've got something to talk to him about."

"Get out of here before we kill you!" one of the guards snaps.

"Sure," I nod. "Just as soon as your boss's head rolls across the floor."

As one, the guards drew their swords, charging down the stairs at me. I have to commend them for being able to run down such steep steps so easily without taking their eyes off of me to watch their footing. The first leaps at me from a few steps upward and slashes downward at me. However, I sidestep the blade, allowing him to pass me as I split him in half with my sword. As I do, the next reaches the flat level and drops into a crouch, shooting forward and driving his sword at me only for me to step out of the way, my sword arcing back down into him in one fluid motion, splitting the front of his torso open before he begins to tumble down the rest of the stairs with the other guard's halves. The last guard shouts for reinforcements before stepping forward and slashing at me. I deflect the slash and he adjusts, stabbing at me. I knock it away again and he sweeps it back around at me, keeping all of the momentum as he slashes at me. However, the sword skips off of my own blade and streaks up high into the air before sailing away, along with both of the guard's arms from just below his elbows. He stares at his amputated arms, then looks up at me just as I remove his head. I look up at the door just as several guards burst out of it, except, they're not fighting. They're running. The first's foot slips off of the third step and he begins to fall, breaking his neck, and bounces past me. The third trips over his untied shoe's laces and takes the second down, both crashing down on the level I'm on and groan. The final troop gets about halfway and jumps, landing in a roll in front of me and moving to slash as he stands. I step aside and he doesn't even slow down, moving to flee down the rest of the steps, only for a flash of orange energy to punch sideways through his neck, blood splattering across the ground before he fell, tumbling down the steps. I finish off the other two and look up at the door as Sheele steps into the doorway, blood running down the blades of her scissors.

"Not bad," she says. "Come on. We should head back before soldiers show up."

I nod and she walks down the stairs, joining me at the bottom before we walk away. She glances at me, watching me carry my sword by resting the flat of the blade on my shoulder.

"You carry your sword like it's bigger," she notes.

"I used to use much larger weapons," I say. "My first sword was a claymore. Then a broadsword. Then a bastard sword. The first broke fighting a Danger Beast, the second broke during a job when I hit a wall, and the last one I lost fighting this sword's previous owner. This cut straight through mine like it was a toy, if you can believe it."

"That's quite an impressive weapon," she nods. "Is it an Imperial Arms?"

"No," I say. "Just an incredibly well-forged sword. And a family heirloom."

"Oh, did someone else take it from your family?" Sheele asks.

"No," I say. "I took it from my brother."

"You killed your brother?" Sheele asks.

"I did," I nod. "Right after he got done raping my little sister to death."

Sheele falls silent, staring at the ground in silence. After a few minutes, Mine rejoins us and we continue on, Mine and Sheele discussing how easy the mission was. Then, as we're passing through a park, something falls at us from above and we all leap out of the way, the ground cratering as the thing, a soldier, crashes to the ground. We turn, staring at the girl as she stands, her range hair in a ponytail. She's about Akame's age, I'd guess, and she'd be really pretty, if it wasn't for the deranged, borderline psychotic, smile covering her face.

"I finally found you, Night Raid," she says.

Her hand is holding a leash attached to a small white ball of a creature, but as I stare at it, I can tell it's a living Imperial Arms.

"That thing's going to be a problem," I say, the other two nodding.

Then, Mine raises her gun, firing a long burst of bullets, which slam into the suddenly much, much larger creature, kicking up a massive cloud of dust and smoke.

"You're going to need something a lot stronger," I say, drawing my sword.

As I do, the smoke clears, allowing us to watch as the thing's bullet holes all seal themselves. The thing stood nearly double the girl's height now, and had pointed teeth and large, black, empty eyes.

"This is going to go poorly," I say. "It's going to keep healing no matter how much damage we do to it. We'll have to kill the girl first."

"Just try it," she snarls, her smile replaced by a glare.

"With pleasure," I grin. Then, I charge.

* * *

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	2. Chapter 2

Monster

"It's going to keep healing no matter how much damage we do to it. We'll have to kill the girl first."

"Just try it," she snarls, her smile replaced by a glare.

"With pleasure," I grin. Then, I charge.

As I do, she grabs a pair of weapons, which look like blades with the handles extending from the backs of them, from her hips, holding out her arms and exposing the barrels extended from them. I jump as both begin to fire, bullets flying past and at Mine and Sheele, the shots inaccurate and ineffective. Then, as I'm falling, I slash downward at her. She leaps backward, my sword sparking against her weapons but not damaging them or harming her. I smirk. Not bad. As I land, I hurl myself to the side as the massive creature tries to take a bite out of me with its massive mouth, several rows of teeth filling its mouth on all sides. My only real complaint, however, is the thing's breath. It's like a dog that's eaten nothing but diarrhea and three day old corpses for years.

I land on my feet and leap backward as bullets begin to fly past me, however, it's short-lived as Sheele reaches the soldier and slashes at her, barely missing. I land on my feet as the creature roars at me, again assaulting me with it's ungodly breath.

"Coro, arms!" the girl shouts, rolling out of the way of Sheele's attack.

The creature's tiny stubs suddenly turn into liquid, expanding rapidly into a pair of massive, heavily muscled arms. Then, it spins, swinging at Sheele, only for flip out of the way, avoiding the strike but breaking off her pursuit of the girl. Coro spins back toward me and punches at me, but I duck under the fist, darting forward and slashing along its forearm, its blood splashing to the ground behind me. It roars in pain, recoiling and I dive to the side out of the way of a spray of bullets, rolling to my feet just in time to leap high into the air, Coro biting a chunk out of the ground where I had been a moment before. I flip, landing on its back and driving my sword hilt deep into its spine before I slide down its back, ripping it wide open before leaping off and sprinting back toward Sheele and Mine.

As I spin, skidding to a stop beside them, I see the last of Coro's wound healing. "What's it take to kill this thing?"

"Organic-based Imperial Arms have a core that has to be destroyed to kill them," Mine says. "If you don't destroy the core, it'll continuously regenerate."

"Great," I grumble. "Sheele, can you handle the girl?"

"Yes," Sheele nods. "Be careful."

Mine and I nod just as the girl points at us.

"Pulverize," she orders.

Coro roars, streaking forward as its arms throw punches in a massive flurry of strikes. Sheele steps forward, beginning to block them with her scissors. As she does, the girl blows a whistle, producing a loud, piercing note for a moment before grinning sadistically at us again.

"Mine, shoot her," I say.

Mine leaps into the air, but instead of shooting the girl, she fires a blast straight down into Coro, except that the blast is enormous, completely engulfing the creature. As soon as the blast ends, Mine falls from where the recoil threw her, about ten feet behind me, and Coro begins to regenerate, about half of his head having to regrow completely, but doing so rapidly.

"Jeez, this thing's unreal," I growl, readying myself as the dust around me begins to thin.

Just as it does, a blinding light shines from somewhere behind it before I hear Sheele's scissors clashing with the girl's guns, Sheele shouting in effort. Coro turns to attack Sheele, but I jump, splitting it up the back on the way up, then a blast punches through Coro's side, drilling a massive hole through it. Before Coro can turn, I slash it down the front, then leap aside, avoiding a punch that craters the ground.

"Don't turn your back on us," I growl. "Mine, focus on finding the core."

Mine nods and I sprint forward, rolling as Coro sweeps his arm at me, barely leaving enough room for me to get under it. Then, I stand, slashing it across the abdomen and dive to the side, Coro's jaws snapping closed where I had been. Several shots punch through it, making it roar and turn after Mine, charging quickly. However, just as it pulls is arm back, the girl's voice cuts through the air.

"Coro, last resort!" the girl shouts from off to the side somewhere. "Berserk!"

Coro's eyes turn blood red instantly, rolling in their sockets for a moment before it begins to grow even more, its fur turning red and growing messy as it stands on end. Its collar bursts off as it grows too big, and it gains a humanoid muscle tone, though its legs are still comparatively short. It roars deafeningly and grabs Mine before she can react, beginning to squeeze. She screams in pain, and I'm snapped out of my surprise at its transformation. I charge, leaping into the air and stab my sword into the crook of its elbow. However, it simply roars and flicks me off with its free hand, my sword remaining where it is. I bounce off the ground and flip, gritting my teeth as I plant my feet on the ground and drive my dagger into it, skidding backward. After a moment, the dagger's blade snaps off and I fall backward, rolling once before regaining my feet and stopping.

"Fine," I snarl. "I'll have to use it after all."

I raise my right hand, only to stop as Sheele steps out from behind Coro, jumping and slicing off his arm, freeing Mine.

"Sheele!" Mine smiles.

"I made it just in time!" Sheele smiles.

Then, a gunshot rings out as blood bursts from her chest. Her eyes widen as she begins to fall. Coro moves to bite her and I sprint forward. I grit my teeth, pushing myself to run as fast as I can. Sheele wanted to try to be my friend. Like hell I'm going to let her die before she realizes how wrong she is. I reach her and take her scissors, spinning and slashing Coro across the face, diverting him to the side before driving the scissors into the ground, releasing them and catching Sheele, ignoring the fact that I'm suddenly exhausted, and that my body burns.

"Sheele, hang in there," I say, ripping off one of my sleeves and stuffing it into the wound in her chest, ignoring her screams of pain.

The wound is bad, since it's a gunshot, but I've seen worse. I'm able to slow the bleeding.

"Sheele!" Mine shouts, picking up her gun.

"Get the hell out of here Mine!" I snap as I see soldiers running toward us from all sides. "Let me worry about Sheele!"

"But-"

"Just go!" I shout.

She turns to run but stops as she sees the soldiers. However, Sheele rips her scissors out of the ground and the blades suddenly shine blindingly, allowing Mine to run past the guards as they shield their eyes, escaping. I stand, holding Sheele in my arms, and walk over to Coro's severed arm, a replacement having already grown in. I rip my sword free and sheath it just as Sheele's light fades.

"You need to go," Sheele says. "I'm finished."

"No yu're not," I say. "Relax. I can treat your wound after we get out of here."

"But how will we do that?" Mine asks.

"Simple," I say. "I'm going to kill everyone else in this park."

Sheele stares at me as the girl controlling Coro, a girl who apparently can grow a gun out of her mouth, seeing as that's how she shot Sheele after Sheele amputated both of her arms, begins to cackle.

"I'd like to see that!" the bitch says.

"Then watch closely," I say, allowing my rage to instantly boil over.

* * *

I set Sheele on her feet and she staggers away from me, eyes wide and hands gripping her scissors tightly. The piece of shirt I had used to stop her bleeding falls away as the wound finishes sealing up.

"What are you?" Sheele demands, voice even despite the terror in her eyes.

"I'm Jason," I say. "And I'm not going to hurt you. Although, I did warn you that you wouldn't want to be my friend."

Sheele's silent for a long moment before lowering her scissors. "Can you be trusted?"

"Can anyone?" I ask. "So long as no one double-crosses me or pisses me off, I'm not going to kill anyone in Night Raid. Now can we get back before Mine reports us both dead?"

"Wait, you didn't kill that girl," Sheele says. "That creature blocked your attack."

"That's true," I nod. "But it's going to take a while to recover, and we got away safely. So let's just count our blessings and get the fuck out of here before that thing catches us again."

"Couldn't you just use that again?" Sheele asks.

"It's ridiculously hard to control that," I say. "I have to be angry to use it. And when I do, obviously, I'm an entirely different person. It's not safe to use it that often or for very long."

Sheele nods and we turn, quickly heading toward Night Raid's hideout. It's pouring rain, ever since a few minutes after I got us away from the girl, so the trip back is miserable, and we're both soaked by the time we get back. But when we do, we find the others standing outside in the rain, all looking like they had lost a friend, which I'm sure Mine had told them they had.

"Jumping in without a plan will only increase the body count," the boss was saying.

"Our friend was just killed!" the new guy shouted. "I can't sit here and-"

The big guy with the heart-shaped hair punched him, sending him flying ten feet. "You're embarrassing yourself Tatsumi! Don't lose control! Didn't we say anybody could die at any moment? You know this when you agreed to join us!"

"Yeah kid," I say, everyone spinning toward us and staring in shock. "Dying's a hazard of the job. So is getting hurt. You can't fly off half-cocked just because someone got unlucky. As it happens, however, you guys actually ended up being lucky that Akame decided to recruit me instead of kill me."

"Sheele!" Mine shouts, shoving me aside and throwing her arms around Sheele.

I regain my footing, catching myself before I can fall, then grit my teeth, working to rein in my anger. I sigh as I manage to suppress it. I've always got a hair trigger after using it. But hopefully, someday, I'll be able to be free of it at last. Just have to find a way that won't kill me first.

"How?" Mine asks. "You were shot. And there were to many."

"It was Jason," Sheele says, looking to me. "He killed everyone but the Imperial Arms user and saved me."

"You can heal wounds?" the boss asks.

"Sometimes," I say. "But it comes at a price."

"Did it shorten her lifespan?" Akame asks.

"The price is mine," I say. "So don't expect me to heal every bump or scrape you get. I probably won't be healing anyone of you ever again."

"That's fine," the boss says. "This is more than enough. Thank you." She bows low, the others all ding the same.

"Enough," I say. "You'll make me regret it. Just give me my money for the job and let's pretend it didn't happen."

A few of the others glare at me, but the boss simply smiles and nods, turning and walking back toward the hideout. The rest of them follow and I bring up the rear.

* * *

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	3. Chapter 3

Guard Duty

I try to ignore Tatsumi as we walk alongside the ship we're supposed to sneak onto. Ever since we fought the bitch with the living Imperial Arms, someone had been framing us for murdering the Minister's political rivals. The most likely suspect is Esdeath, the top general of the Imperial army, and a sadistic woman who wields ice with her Imperial Arms. She had been away fighting in the North, however, she had wiped out the force that should have taken months to defeat in a matter of weeks, maybe less, and then returned to the capital. Leone, the blonde slut with the huge boobs and the too-small tube top, had been ordered to try and gather information on her. While she was, Akame, Lubbock, a green haired guy I hadn't met when I joined, Bulat, the guy with the heart-shaped hair, Tatsumi, and I were all ordered to guard the two groups of politicians most likely to be attacked next.

The politicians Bulat, Tatsumi, and I are guarding are all on the ship Tatsumi is currently staring at, the Ryuusen. And for good reason. It towers over us about five stories, is entirely red with gold alone the top edges, and has a massive dragon figurehead. It's like a floating fortress, not that that will protect the politicians. But we can. Of course, I'd much prefer to have Akame with us in stead of Tatsumi, since Akame is actually a deadly fighter and experienced assassin, but we'll have to make due, since she and Lubbock got sent to a separate location.

"Tatsumi, stop ogling the ship," I say. "You're being too obvious."

We make it onto the ship and it pulls away from the port a short while later. Within a few minutes, the deck is crawling with rich people wearing expensive suits and dresses. We all change into our own suits, Tatsumi's white and mine black, and disperse onto the deck, Bulat using his Imperial Arms armor's ability to turn invisible to hide. I lean against the side of the boat, careful to keep my sword concealed. I have it upside down under the back of my open jacket, and I've got my tie loose and the undershirt unbuttoned a bit. After a while, Tatsumi heads into the ship's ball room, leaving the deck to me. Slowly, the rest of the partygoers trickle inside as well, so I follow. As I step inside, I hear a flute playing. It's a beautiful melody. However, as it continues, I feel my eyes starting to get heavy. I feel like I should be concerned, but I'm too tired to care. I sit down at a table. Maybe if I just rest for a few minutes, I'll be able to focus on the mission after. I start to close my eyes, only for a rush of rage to flash through me, forcing me awake and to my feet, just as others begin to fall too the ground, all of them unconscious. I hurry to Tatsumi, covering his ears as he's using a table to try and support himself.

"Don't listen to the music," I growl, feeling a constant flow of anger keeping my blood pounding in my ears, blocking out the melody.

I help him up, guiding him outside quickly, only to stop as someone behind us speaks.

"Looks like someone's resisting," the voice says, both of us turning to see a man in a black suit and long, messy blonde hair with a black headband with a pair of black devil-style horns sticking up off of it, stalking down the stairs toward us, hands in his pockets and an axe across his back. "If you had just gone to sleep, I'd have left you alone."

"Then you must be the Night Raid imposter," Tatsumi says.

"Oh, so you're real ones, then," the man says.

"Yes, and we don't appreciate being framed, or for you to slaughter our potential allies," I say, drawing my sword and stepping in front of Tatsumi. "Stay back. He's stronger than you. Plus, you don't have a weapon."

"Here you go," the man says, hurling one of the politician's guards swords to Tatsumi.

"Did you kill him already?" I ask.

"Not yet," the man grins.

"Why are you giving me a sword?" Tatsumi asks.

"I want to fight to grow stronger," the man says, drawing his double-bladed axe and crouching. "So be the strongest there is!"

He streaks forward, slashing at me, but I block it, the man grinning widely as I manage to hold back his axe, despite him being nearly double my size. I shove the axe upward and spin around him, slashing from behind, only for him to pivot, blocking the slash and shoving it away, swinging upward at me. I sidestep it and slash at him and he leaps away. He grins just as a flash of lightning streaks up his axe's handle and the section of the shaft between the blades, where it looks like another handle. Then, the axe separates along the middle, the man now holding the blades at the handles behind them, and hurls one, sending it spinning at me. I duck and it curves around at Tatsumi. He leaps backward, the blade carving shallowly through his abdomen, before it returns to the man. He catches it and I charge, slashing at him rapidly. He laughs, deflecting my blows again and again, using his two blades to counter as much as he was blocking. I manage to keep out of the way of his counter strikes, but the longer I fight him, the closer it gets. However, I also start to get a feel for his fighting. Finally, I grin. I've got him. I stagger back a step, sword swinging back behind me and he lunges, punching at me. However, as he does, I dart forward, dropping into a slide and slipping between his legs, slashing above myself as I do. He screams in agony, collapsing and clutching at his ruined genitals, even as the gash, which split him up to just below his rib cage, rapidly drains him of blood.

As I stand and he finally dies, a man with silver hair in a long ponytail with his bangs hanging across his face, a silver mustache, a pair of white gloves, and a short sword hanging from his belt appears next to me, kicking me and sending me blasting into Tatsumi. I push myself up just as a blonde with a recorder leaps at me from behind. I jump and spin, slamming a kick into him and hurling him into the other man, landing on my feet just as Bulat lands in front of me and Tatsumi.

"I'll take it from here," Bulat says. "Tatsumi, based on what Jason just did when attacked from behind, do you understand now what I mean when I say to be aware of your surroundings?"

"Yes," Tatsumi nods.

"Good," Bulat nods and drops, slamming his hand into the ground. "Incursio!"

Flames shoot up around him in a circle, and a moment later they went out, leaving him in his armor with a spear in his hand.

"With that Imperial Arms, you must be Bulat," the man with the silver hair says.

"You are...General Liver!" Bulat says, staring at the man in shock.

"I am no longer a general," the man says. "After Lady Esdeath saved me, I became her servant."

"If we'd been on the same side we could have had a drink to celebrate this reunion," Bulat says, spinning his spear in one hand. "But since you've resurfaced as my enemy, I must kill you! I must complete the mission!"

"That's my line," the man says, pulling his right glove off, exposing a silver ring with a blue stone embedded into it, the stone shining instantly. "The mission must be carried out. With this Imperial Arms my master bestowed upon me!" He swings his hand back, then forward again, the ring shining as water explodes up from several barrels off to either side of him. "The Imperial Arms Black Marlin! Created from the organ of an aquatic Danger Beast that controls water. Thus, its user can freely manipulate any liquid surrounding them. It's immensely fortunate that my battle with you three takes place here."

"Fortune nothing," I say. "You had this all planned out. You suspected we'd be here, so you made sure to make your move over water."

"True," the man nods before swinging both arms forward. "Water Spirit Cannon!"

The water, which had been in spiraling columns before, shoots forward at Bulat, only to disperse as Bulat propellers his spear in a blue, blocking the water. As he does, I turn to the third member, who glare at me as I draw my sword. The boy has white short shorts with his black jacket and shoulder-length blonde hair. He raises his black and red recorder to his lips, only to spin, using it to block Tatsumi's sword. After a moment, he shoves Tatsumi away and spins, deflecting my sword before swinging the recorder at me. I block it repeatedly, actually finding myself impressed that the thing isn't being broken by my sword. Finally, I spin past a swipe and slash at the boy, splitting his side open but missing anything fatal. The by lands lightly and Tatsumi charges, both slash rapidly at the other, their weapons clashing rapidly before the boy flips over Tatsumi, kicking him repeatedly in the back and throwing him. He catches himself on his hands and shoves himself up, charging again, their weapons clashing rapidly all over again. This time, however, they both jump back, breathing hard and the boy holding his side, which is starting to bleed worse as his heartrate climbs.

"Considering his wound, his speed is ridiculous," Tatsumi says. "However, he can't fight for long with that wound."

"Agreed," I say, stepping up beside Tatsumi. "Shall we end this?"

Tatsumi nods. However, before we can move, water off to one side explodes into the air, forming a massive serpent of spiraling water, Liver standing on top of it. I ignore it, but Tatsumi looks over at it.

"Something crazy's going on over there," Tatsumi reports.

"Focus on our own battle," I say. "Getting distracted will get you killed."

"Right," Tatsumi nods.

"As long as we're on the water, Liver's going to win," our opponent says.

"It's obvious Bro's going to win!" Tatsumi says charging.

He and the boy begin to clash again, but after a few blows, they settle for pushing against each other's weapon.

"Liver's gonna win!" the boy argues.

"It's gonna be Bro!"

I step up beside Tatsumi and slash downward at the boy, but he leaps backward, managing to avoid the slash. Then, he takes off, streaking away from us and moving to intercept Bulat, who's about to finish his opponent from above, though his face mask is shattered. Bulat transitions his strike, smashing the boy away and lands on the ship. Just as he does, his armor fades, leaving him in his normal green armor, bloodied and bruised, and with his hair hanging loose around his head, but smiling.

"Tatsumi," I say. "Can you keep the kid busy for a bit?"

"Yeah," Tatsumi nods.

He charges at the boy, the two beginning to clash again as I turn toward Bulat's opponent, sheathing my sword and walking over to stand beside Bulat.

"I'll give you a hand," I say.

"On the water like this, I can handle both of you, especially now that Bulat's armor has faded," Liver says.

"Don't act tough," Bulat says. "You're bleeding from your ears Liver."

I look and sure enough, there's blood running out of Liver's ears.

"After pulling off those tremendous moves, your body must be worn out," Bulat says. "You're in no condition to use your Imperial Arms either."

"If that's revealed, there's no help for it," Liver says. "I wanted to negotiate from a higher vantage point, but I'll simply ask. Bulat, do you have any interest in joining Lady Esdeath's army? Since it's you, a second-in-command rank is conceivable."

"I have no interest in serving the Empire anymore," Bulat says.

"Not the Empire," Liver says. "Think of it as serving Lady Esdeath. That was the way I was saved. You could do as you please, and be feared by all." He toys with a small cross hanging in front of his collar for a moment before clenching it in a fist, a look of pure hatred filling his face. "That's right! Even those filthy political officials spreading their tainted philosophy would bow down to you!"

"Can I please shut this fucker up?" I ask.

"Come with me Bulat!" Liver offers. "Lady Esdeath can expunge your crimes!"

"I refuse," Bulat says, pulling out a comb and beginning to fix his hair. "You may be comfortable with your current position, considering how you feel about political officials, but I am a defender of the people." He flicks his switchblade comb closed, hair already back in its normal style. "If I were to join the Esdeath army that's working with the minister, I wouldn't be able to say that anymore."

"Defender of the people?" Liver scoffs. "Not something I'd expect to hear from an assassin."

"That's why I tried to say it with humility," Bulat says. "Since neither of us can use our Imperial Arms..."

"We'll settle this with our swords," Liver finishes, then drops something out of his sleeve and drives it into his neck, injecting himself with some thick green substance. "I'll be enhancing my strength, since you're my opponent after all."

"Actually, I am," I say, stepping forward and drawing my sword again.

Since Liver can't use his Imperial Arms, my sword will do just fine. Beside me, Bulat presses a concealed switch on his left pauldrons and a piece of armor on his back flips up, a large silver sword with a short chain extending from the pommel shoots out, Bulat catching it as his armor closes.

"Let's go!" Bulat says, both of us charging as Liver does the same.

When we meet, Liver almost instantly impresses me. Despite his body being at its limits, he's able to fend off both of us at once. His and Bulat's swords crash into each other with enough force for both to stagger backward and I lunge, slashing at him, only for him to deflect it sideways, then stepping past me, his and Bulat's swords beginning to clash again. I turn, preparing to rejoin the fight just as Liver's sword shatters and he's thrown backward, blood flying out of a gash in his chest.

"Hidden Technique, Blade of Blood!" Liver says, crossing his arms.

Instantly, the blood in the air around him shoots forward, stabbing at Bulat, only for Bulat to begin slashing them out of the air. He blocks nearly all of them, but some of them manage to hit his chest and arms. As the last of the blood projectiles falls away, Bulat stabs his sword into the deck, panting and struggling to stay in his feet.

"Are you alright Bro?" Tatsumi asks, limping over, the blond boy he was fighting lying on the deck off to the side, a second, much deeper, gash in his other side.

"These wounds aren't fatal," Bulat says.

"But they _are_ debilitating," I say. "If we fight anyone else, I'll handle it."

Bulat nods.

"Bulat," Liver says, raising a hand to the cross around his neck again. "There's one last thing. The real reason I decided to join Lady Esdeath's army. She visited me in my cell. She said that she could do what she wanted, because she was the reason the minister was safe. She said that she could make anything troubling me disappear. Simply put, I idolized her. That's all."

"Liver," Bulat says.

"Therefor," Liver says, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "As someone who exists solely to serve Lady Esdeath, I will take your life!"

Suddenly, Bulat, blood splattering over the ground.

"Bro!" Tatsumi gasps.

"That vial before wasn't merely to enhance his strength," Bulat chokes out. "It was also a deadly poison!"

"The poison will course through someone like you with no resistance," Liver says. "You cannot be saved. I will...be going...head." He collapses, and I turn to Bulat.

As much as I hate to admit it, Liver's right. Bulat's body is too weak and exhausted to fight off any poison. And that poison is likely too strong to be survived without an antidote anyway.

"As expected from my former superior," Bulat says. "A draw, huh?"

I turn away, walking over to Liver and kick him between the legs hard. Nothing. I sigh, kneeling and take his ring, slipping it into my pocket. Then, I head for the larger one that I killed earlier, taking his axe and reconnecting the pieces, slinging it across my back. As I do, I hear music begin to play and my pulse begins to pound in my ears again. I turn to the blond kid as he walks toward Tatsumi and Bulat, playing his recorder. However, after a moment, my pulse fades just as the boy's muscles suddenly expand to rival Bulat's own, giving him nearly a foot in height and more than enough power to take me and Tatsumi on. It also heals his wounds. I drop the axe back beside its dead wielder and walk toward the boy.

"It's been a while since I've changed into this form," the boy says.

Tatsumi sets Bulat down and readies himself, only for me to rest my hand on his shoulder before stepping past him.

"I told you, I'll handle the fighting from here," I say. "It's about time for me to use my own Imperial Arms."

"Isn't your sword your Imperial Arms?" Tatsumi asks.

"Hardly," I snort. "My sword's just well made."

I curl my hands into fists and feel my pinky and middle finger pressing into the sides of my ring. It's red and shaped like a dragon coiled around my finger. The ring glows as I activate it and my hands burst into flames.

"Whoa!" Tatsumi says. "You control fire!?"

"More than that," I smirk. "But for now, yeah. I control fire. Allow me to introduce you to Ryujin."

The boy leaps into the air and I swipe my right hand downward, a fireball launching out of it and arcing into the air, blasting into the boy from above and sending him exploding into the deck of the ship. Then, just as he lands, there's an explosion of power behind me and I spin, seeing Tatsumi holding Bulat's word on the ground, a massive version of Bulat's armor behind Tatsumi, its facemask missing, revealing a wrinkly, purple-haired, four-eyed monster's face, sharp teeth in its open mouth. Its hands were around Tatsumi, red energy flowing around him in a sphere. Then, smoke shot up around Tatsumi and the monster both before clearing, leaving Tatsumi wearing the armor.

"Impressive," I say. "You're compatible. Good for you. But I'm not going to have you wasting your energy. I'll mop this guy up real quick."

"Is your Imperial Arms how you saved Sheele?" Tatsumi asks.

"Uh...yeah," I lie. "Totally."

"Then I'll handle this," Tatsumi says. "You said you can't use that for long without losing control."

"This won't take that long," I say. "But thanks for being concerned."

"Jason, I'm handling him," Tatsumi says. "I don't want to lose any more friends today."

"Then you'll be happy to know that even if I die, you won't lose any more friends," I say. "I don't have any friends."

"What about Sheele?" Tatsumi asks.

"She'll smarten up eventually," I say as the boy charges at us. "Everyone always does."

I move to intercept the boy, but Tatsumi shoves me aside, punching at the boy, his fist meeting the boy's own. However, the boy went flying, exploding into the side of the ship's building, cratering it as his blood repainted the section around him. I sigh, deactivating my ring.

"I had it handled, Tatsumi," I say.

"You may not see me as a friend, or Sheele, but we _are_ your friends," Tatsumi says. "And I'm not risking anymore friends." Then, he deactivated his armor, walking over to Bulat and sinking to his knees. I turn away, walking over to the guy I killed and getting his axe again, then going to the fallen recorder and retrieving that as well before heading inside, allowing Tatsumi to grieve in private.

* * *

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	4. Chapter 4

Training

I remain silent as I watch Sheele prepare herself. She's got a massive construct made of wooden planks with large wooden handles to serve as a training version of her scissors. I'm using a wooden katana, though it's good enough. Finally, she sprints forward, beginning to slash at me rapidly. I deflect her strikes again and again, backpedaling as I do, before spinning around her, slashing at her back, only for her to spin the other way, knocking my sword upward, her scissors suddenly open, the other blade slashing up at me from below. I spin around the blade and slash at her side but she turns, catching the blade between her scissors before spinning and sending my sword flipping into the air. Then, she spins, slashing at me again, slamming the blade into my side and throwing me. I flip, landing on my feet as she tosses my sword to me.

"You're doing much better than when we first fought," I note.

"I was supposed to test you then, not kill you," she says. "And besides that, I underestimated your skill then. This time, I won't."

I smirk, charging and beginning to fight her again. She's right about one thing. Wooden weapons means we don't have to hold back. I can put full force into my strikes. And I do. I catch her off guard for a moment, but before long, she adjusts and I'm on the defensive again. I begin to fend off her strikes, staying low and light on my feet, dodging around her strikes as much as I can as I struggle to keep up. I bat a slash away and she spins, taking a step backward before stepping forward again, stabbing at me rapidly. I begin to deflect and dodge the stabs rapidly, still struggling to fend her off. I lean backward under a stab and knock it to the side before throwing myself backward as she slashes, setting my hands and kicking my legs upward, avoiding the slash and regaining my feet in time to lunge forward, wedging my sword between her scissors' blades, stopping her from closing them on me.

"You're actually terrifying when you get serious," I say before jumping, pushing off of her scissors with my sword and flipping, slashing downward at her, only for her handle to bat the blade aside.

I kick at her, forcing her to dodge, allowing me to land, then lunge, slashing at her rapidly again. She allows me to be n the offensive for a few moments before opening her scissors and twirling them, knocking my sword aside before slamming the other blade into my head, flipping me end for end. I crash down hard and Sheele sits down beside me, setting her training scissors on the ground.

"You did very well," she says.

"You didn't even break a sweat beating my ass," I say.

"You don't have to break a sweat to die," she says.

"Yeah, but this is training," I say. "If I was a challenge, you'd be sweating."

She shrugs. "I think you did great."

I roll my eyes, pushing myself up, thumb dragging over the inside of my ring. "Whatever. I'm going to go train with my ring. Come and get me if anything comes up."

She nods and I walk away through the woods.

* * *

I stare at the bowl in front of me. Beef stew with sausage added in, fried chicken on the side, and ham as seconds. I shake my head, beginning to eat. However, after a moment, I glance up, seeing Sheele watching me.

"What?"

"Nothing," Sheele says, returning her attention to her food, continuing to eat.

"There must be _some_ reason for you to be staring at me while I eat," I say.

"You're an idiot," Mine says, struggling to eat.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at her.

Sheele glances up at me and clears her throat. "I was just thinking and staring off into space. It was just a coincidence that it was at you."

I glare at Mine for another moment before looking back to Sheele. She's lying, but I know she's trying to calm me down, so I allow her statement to stand.

"Oh." I continue to eat, ignoring the others looking between me and Sheele in confusion.

I may have warned them about my anger being a problem, but none of them understood why Sheele was afraid of me getting angry. Dinner continued on in silence for a while before I finish before the others and stand, quickly leaving the room, only for Sheele to catch my hand a little ways down the hallway.

"Are you alright?" She asks, not releasing my hand.

"Fine," I say, trying to ignore how hyperaware I am of the warmth of her hand or how soft her hand is, despite being a highly experienced fighter.

My own are calloused and rough from it.

"I mean it," Sheele says. "Is anything wrong? You can talk to me about anything. Really."

"Because you're afraid of me," I say.

"No, because you're my friend," Sheele says. "I don't like seeing you like this. I can see something's bothering you."

"Right now the only thing bothering me is you!" I snap, yanking my hand away, unable to handle my focus being dragged to it any longer. "I'm fine, Sheele. I just don't care to be around any of you, since you're all just going to die anyway."

Sheele's silent and I realize I've misspoken. And not just because I know I've hurt her feelings. She's also figured out what's wrong.

"It wasn't your fault," she says.

"I don't care," I say. "He's dead and I got a bigger cut for it. Why should it matter to me if he's dead."

"Because you care," Sheele says. "Whether you want to or not, you care."

"No, I don't," I growl. "All I care about is money. I don't care who I have to hurt or kill to get it, and I don't care if any of you die. The more of you that bite it, the more money I get payed."

I continue walking, and this time Sheele lets me go. I grit my teeth, trying to figure out why my chest compresses painfully at that fact.

* * *

I kick off of the tree, allowing Sheele's scissors to slice through it easily. We're fighting with our real weapons today, which means we both have to be careful not to kill the other, but she's still not holding back. I land on my feet as her blades swing around at me again, but I duck under them, darting forward and stopping with my sword's blade to her throat, her own blades ready to snap closed on my about waist level.

"Good," she smiles. "You're improving."

"Yeah sure," I say, stepping back, making sure to keep my blade between hers where I can block hers if she tries to continue the sparring session. "I still can't beat you."

"That's alright," she says. "You're still far more powerful than I am."

"You know I can't use that," I say.

"I mean your Imperial Arms," she says. "Your ring. You don't use it, but it's powerful. Maybe enough to counter Esdeath's."

"Not hardly," I snort. "She's a fucking monster."

Sheele sighs, nodding. "Come on. Let's head back to the others. You're supposed to be training strength with Tatsumi and Lubbock."

I sigh and nod, walking inside with her, both of us heading to where Bulat used to train, finding Tatsumi and Lubbock doing pushups shirtless, Akame sitting on Tatsumi's back and Leone sitting on Lubbock's. I don't even both to question it, instead pulling my shirt off and dropping into a push up position, Sheele sitting on my back as I begin to do push ups as well. After a while of this, long past the point of me being drenched in sweat and impressed with the others' endurance, Mine arrives, demanding that someone train with her before stopping to ask what they were doing.

"Ever since I put it on, I realized how much strength Incursio takes," Tatsumi says. "I can only use invisibility for about a second. I have to train hard in order to be able to use it for an extended period like Bro."

"I almost never see you drenched in sweat," Mine accuses, looking to Lubbock.

"Well, there are only three guys in Night Raid now," Lubbock says. "I figured I needed t step up my game."

"As cool as that sounds, you realize you've only done half as many pushups as Tatsumi, right?" Leone grins.

"It can't be helped since there's such a weight disparity," Akame says.

I freeze, looking over at her in shock just as Leone leaps off of Lubbock, slamming a fist into the top of her head. Just as she does, the boss steps outside.

"Oh good, you're here," the boss says. "I'm leaving to turn these Imperial Arms we've confiscated over to the Revolutionary Army. Akame, you're in charge while I'm gone. The game plan is for everyone to do their best."

"I understand the basics," Akame says.

"Only the basics!?" Tatsumi gapes.

"Relax, she'll take her job seriously," Lubbock says.

"But that means we can't use her for missions," I say. "So we'll have to keep training harder. Especially you, Tatsumi, if you're going to be Bulat's replacement."

"I'm not his replacement!" Tatsumi snaps.

"Whatever," I say. "He's dead, you're not, you have his Imperial Arms. Point is, you have to train hard to use it as well as he did."

"I don't know if I'll ever be able to do that," Tatsumi says.

"You will," Leone says. "I didn't want to inflate your ego, but Bulat once told me that even though you're green, you have the potential to surpass him."

"That's true," the boss says. "Bulat had nothing but praise for you. He had the highest of expectations. You had better do your best so that you don't let him down."

Tatsumi stares at the ground, eyes watering, before nodding. "I will."

I return to doing my pushups and the boss leaves, the others also returning to training, Akame and Tatsumi sparring, Lubbock going to shower, and Leone going to train with Mine.

* * *

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	5. Chapter 5

Leaving the Party

I watch Akame in silence. She's struggling not to cry. Apparently Tatsumi is very important to her. He was stupid enough to enter a martial arts tournament being held by the capital, except that when he had won, Esdeath herself had walked into the ring, attached a collar to his neck, and then lead him away by a chain. The others were worried she'd figured out he was Night Raid, but I was pretty sure it was something else. If she had known he was Night Raid, she'd have been a lot more violent in apprehending him. She loved fighting too much to not.

In other bad news, Mine's face had appeared in wanted posters, so besides me, the only three that could walk around free were Lubbock, Leone, and Tatsumi. My own face had also appeared, but it was extremely inaccurate. The hair was too long, the mouth too large, the teeth were all pointed, the eyes were slit pupils, and there were dark markings spreading from the eyes over the rest of the face. Not that it was that bitch's fault for getting it wrong. It had been dark when we fought. Plus we were fighting.

"For now, we'll move our hideout deeper into the mountains," Akame says.

"That's a good idea," Leone says. "They might find this place."

"But what do we do about Tatsumi?" Lubbock asks. "It might be impossible to rescue him."

"I'm aware of that," Akame says. "But Tatsumi is an important friend. We will d what we can."

"You really care about him," I not, Akame glancing at me, cheeks turning a little pink.

"He's an important friend," Akame repeats.

I smirk. She's not going to admit it. I shrug.

"You guys work on moving the base," I say. "I'll head into the capital and keep an eye on things."

"But what if you get captured?" Sheele asks.

"I won't," I say. "If it comes down to it, I'll just kill whoever finds me."

"What if it's Esdeath?" Akame asks.

"Then I'm running like a scared little bitch," I snort. "Anyway. I gotta go if I'm going to make myself useful. See you guys later."

I leave the hideout and head into the capital. I can't get into the palace, but I know she's take him out of the castle soon enough. So, I sit and wait. Finally, as night approaches, the door opens and a group of people walk out, to include the bitch with the living Imperial Arms. I hide myself instantly, allowing them to pass before following them at a distance. However, I can't get close. Esdeath is with them, as is Tatsumi. I stop a long ways away, watching as Esdeath and Tatsumi watch what sounds like a battle. I can't see it, but Tatsumi looks disturbed by the sight.

As I watch, Esdeath turns, looking directly toward me and grinning, then turns back to the front. I have to admit, Tatsumi's lucky. Psychotic and murderous as Esdeath is, she's gorgeous. To have her be in love with him means that he has the perfect opportunity to fuck someone that literally no one else ever would. Virgin and gorgeous all in one. Her long ice blue hair fit her powers perfectly, as did her ice blue eyelashes, her breasts were enormous and only barely contained by her jacket, and she was in perfect shape. If I were in Tatsumi's shoes, I wouldn't even hesitate to fuck her. Of course, Tatsumi is too good a person to do that.

After a few more minutes, Esdeath and Tatsumi leave and I give them a large head start before stepping out where they had been, watching a fortress in the distance burn. I'm not sure who it belonged to, but clearly Esdeath's new team, the Jaegers, is extremely skilled. I turn, following them back toward the capital.

* * *

I swear as Tatsumi takes off in his armor. I can't follow at that speed. The others are spread around the area where Esdeath's team were hunting Danger Beasts, so hopefully one of them would catch him, but before I can consider it, Wave, the Jaegers member Tatsumi had been paired with, sets his fancy single-edged sword on the ground.

"Grand Chariot!" he shouts, the ground behind him shattering as a massive creature appears behind him.

Smoke envelopes them both and leaves him in blue armor, not unlike Incursio. Then, Wave takes off, moving even faster than Tatsumi. I sigh, sprinting after them only to stop as a few dozen living trees charge at me. I huff, drawing my sword and slashing my way through. Just as I finish, the ground rips itself apart, an Earth Dragon breaking free and roaring, only for it to be cut short as Sheele drops past it, splitting its front open and killing it.

"I could have handle that," I say.

"I know," Sheele smiles, my heart skipping a beat. "Come on. Let's go make sure we save Tatsumi."

I nod and we begin to run again. However, after a few minutes, Leone steps out of the trees before us.

"Akame saved him," Leone says. "She and Lubbock are taking him home now."

"Good," I say. "Then let's get...fuck."

I turn, looking up at the three

Earth Dragons behind us. All three roar and the three of us streak forward, each killing one and ending their roar. However, it gave away our position.

"Run," I say.

We all do exactly that, Leone vanishing into the trees one way as Sheele and I head in a different direction, also ducking into the trees to help us hide. We run for what feels like forever, long past the point that we're both panting and sweating. Finally, we slow down, looking around. We're close to the hideout now.

"Let's get back to the hideout," I say. "If Leone's not there, we can go looking for her."

Sheele nods and we make a beeline for the hideout. We manage to avoid any more danger beasts, and we don't run into any of Esdeath's Jaegers. Finally, we step out of the trees, seeing the hideout in front of us, Leone part way up the stairs already. I sigh, then catch myself. No. I'm not relieved. I don't care. We head inside and find the others all in the dining room.

"Esdeath is indeed powerful," Akame is saying. "But she has a weakness."

"And that is?" Mine asks.

"She's alive," Akame says. "She has a heart and a pulse. So I'll kill her. Even if she _is_ the strongest in the capital."

"You underestimate her," I say. "She creates ice from thin air. She'd freeze you solid before you can get anywhere near her."

"Well then what do you suggest?" Akame asks.

"I'll get you close enough," I say. "My ring is the best suited to fight her ice. And while your sword is the best chance we have of actually killing her, you can't get close without my help."

Akame nods.

"I'll come too," Sheele says.

"You'll do no such thing," I say. "You'll be helping the others deal with her flunkies."

"I agree," Akame nods. "The others will need your help more."

Sheele nods, staring at the floor.

"Anyway," Lubbock says before pulling a bottle of sake out of seemingly thin air. "Let's get this welcome home party started!"

Most of the others cheered and I sigh, walking away from the others, over to a window, leaning on the wall beside it and staring out of it. Within a few minutes, the others are all drinking, laughing, and having a grand time. I ignore them. It's different than my last group's parties. With Night Raid, everyone's a family, and spends most of the time making fun of each other, or in Leone's case, hitting Lubbock. With my last group, Everyone was either fair game, or competition. To put it simply, you got drunk, you fucked, you pick pocketed, and then you fucked some more. I'd been among the worst. I struggle to get drunk, I'm pretty sure I fucked every female in my last group at least three times, and in every conceivable combination of groups minus all at once. But here, here I have to behave myself. So, I ignore the others.

"Why are you over here?" Sheele asks. "It's supposed to be a party."

"My tolerance is too high to get drunk easy, and I'm not really interested in pretending to be drunk and sitting around while you all act like friends," I say.

"What do you mean?" Sheele asks. "We _are_ your friends."

"No, you're my coworkers," I correct. "I've made it abundantly clear that I don't care about any of you."

Sheele's arms wrap around me from behind and my body goes rigid at the unfamiliar and unexpected contact. "Come drink with me. I bet I can outdrink you."

I snort in amusement. "I highly doubt that. Besides, if I get too drunk, I'll probably do something that I'll deeply regret."

"You'll never know unless you try," Sheele smiles, stepping around in front of me, her hands slipping into mine. "Please?"

I clench my teeth and try to smother the ache that tries to form in my chest as she gives me the best puppy dog eyes I've ever seen. Finally, I sigh. "Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you."

Sheele smiles and nods and we head over to the others, steeling a table Lubbock was using for a foot rest, then set down two shot glasses and Sheele sets a bottle of Sake on the table. I set down three more and take a seat, smirking.

"You can't really drink _all_ of that, can you?" Leone asks.

"No," I say. "I usually drink more. but it's been a couple of weeks since I had a drink, so it's probably a little easier now."

"Alright," Lubbock grins. "First one to puke or pass out loses."

"This is your last warning, Sheele," I say. "You're going to regret this."

Sheele pours us both a shot and drains her, watching me silently. I sigh and take my shot as well. Leone refills them for us and we both drink again. Then again. And again. By the time we hit eight shots, Sheele's cheeks are starting to flush, and her eyes seem a bit unfocused. On the other hand, I'm just barely starting to feel buzzed.

"Damn, you really are a machine," Leone says.

"I haven't lost yet," Sheele says, words slurring slightly.

"But you will," I say. "Just take my advice and stop while you can still think straight."

Sheele takes another shot. "Surrendering?"

I shrug, taking my shot, then pour us both another and drink that one too. So does Sheele. We each take abut three more shots before it's obvious that we need to stop. Sheele's swaying sitting down, and when she reaches for her next shot, she spills it. I sigh, standing.

"You've had enough," I say.

"Hah!" she says, slurring badly now. "He surrenders!"

I roll my eyes and help her up, Sheele instantly settling almost all her weight onto me. "I'm going to get her to bed."

"That's awful nice of you," Leone grins.

"Don't start," I grumble. "I'd just rather she have to clean her own sheets when she pukes rather than all of us having to clean this room."

"Mhm, sure," Leone grins.

I roll my eyes and walk out of the room, all but carrying Sheele. After a few minutes, I push the door to her room open and we walk inside. I kick it closed behind me and suddenly, Sheele turns, pushing me back against it and smiling, face hovering a few inches from my own. My breath catches in my throat as she smiles almost predatorially at me before leaning in to whisper in my ear.

"Is this the part where we do something I'll regret?" Sheele asks just before licking my ear.

"Yu're drunk," I say. "Go to sleep. You'll realize how bad an idea this is in the morning."

"That's sweet," Sheele says, still pressing herself against me and hovering beside my ear. "I'm glad you care so much."

"I don't," I say.

"Then why are you trying to stop me?" Sheele asks.

I grit my teeth. The play is obvious, though still a good one. If I stop her, it shows that I care. If I don't stop her...actually, I can't think of how that would be bad for me. She might wake up regretting it, probably will, but for me? I get laid with a very attractive woman, I can blame the alcohol, probably, and then I can say I only did it because I felt like it.

Sheele's tongue drags up the size of my neck for a moment before she locks her lips on my pulse point and suckles gently and just like that, my decision has been made. I grab her ass and lift her, quickly carrying her to the bed and dropping her onto it, my own lips attaching themselves to her neck. Sheele moans, one hand tangling in my hair as her other ne grabs my hand, pulling it to her chest. I comply with her wishes instantly, massaging her breasts roughly, earning several more moans for it. After a few moments, I unbutton the front of her dress above the diamond-shaped opening that shows off her cleavage. As soon as it's unbuttoned, I pull it pen, freeing her breasts before continuing to knead them. Sheele moans, hips pressing up against my leg. I press it against her harder and she moans, grinding against it. However, after several seconds, she rolls us over, then stands at the foot of the bed, pulling her arms out of the dress and letting it fall to the ground, followed by her sleeves and boots, leaving her completely nude. I inhale slowly, eyes roving her body hungrily as she stands there, allowing me to look.

Finally, she crawls onto the bed, pulling my shirt off. Just as soon as she does, I capture one of her nipples with my mouth, suckling hard and earning a moan, Sheele pausing in her efforts to free me of my pants as well. After a moment, she manages to get my belt open and pulls back, forcing me to release her so she can pull my pants off. Once she has, she wraps her fingers around my erection, stroking it a few times before leaning down and wrapping her lips around it, beginning to bob her head instantly. I groan loudly as she takes me in fully within a handful of tries, beginning to bob her head faster. She's good. As she's bobbing her head, her tongue writhes and wraps around my cock constantly, never stopping and rapidly getting me going.

"Fuck, where the hell did you learn to do that?" I groan.

She smiles up at me around my cock, speeding up and I groan louder. However, after a moment, I reach down, lifting her up off of myself.

"Spin around," I say.

Her eyes widen for a moment before she nods, turning around and kneeling above my head. I reach up instantly, beginning to lap at her already soaked slit, my hands kneading her bare ass as I do, pulling her down closer so I don't have to lift my head as much. Sheele moans loudly, hands clenching the sheets for several seconds before she remembers she's supposed to be doing something as well, and she bends back down, beginning to bb her head on my cock again. I groan, reaching a hand around and pushing two fingers into her, my tongue focusing on her clit as her hips buck and she cries out, the sound muffled by my dick. She's tight. Two fingers only just barely fits. I can't wait to see how it feels to have my dick inside of her. I thrust my fingers quickly and Sheele begins to moan and cry out nearly constantly, even while continuing to bob her head, resulting in the vibrations of her moaning adding to the sensations of her already amazing blowjob.

Within a few minutes, I feel myself getting close. I groan loudly, struggling to warn her. I can't even form a word, much less a coherent statement, but I don't seem to need to. Just as I reach my limit, Sheele drops her head entirely, taking my cock deep into her throat where wave after wave of my cum spurts directly down her throat, bypassing her mouth entirely. I groan loudly, hips bucking and thrusting up at her several times before I'm spent. I feel Sheele swallow several times, her throat and tongue milking me dry before she pulls back, releasing my cock. I groan before blinking the stars out of my eyes, seeing she's starting to stand and suddenly I remember that I had a job to do as well. I catch her hips and pull her back down, Sheele gasping before it turns into a moan as I return to devouring her slit hungrily. After a moment, I move my still-lubricated middle finger to her other entrance and push it in. Sheele gasps harshly, hips bucking and twitching for a second as I thrust it in and out rapidly, my free hand replacing that one in her pussy as I suck her clit hard. She takes several hoarse, gasping breaths, the muscles in her abdomen and pelvis coiling up as her pussy quivers around my fingers before she suddenly screams in pleasure, her insides clenching down on my fingers as her hips buck and jerk. Finally, she falls limp and I continue for a couple more seconds at full speed before beginning to slow.

After a minute, I stop entirely and She pushes herself up, panting and struggling to catch her breath. She turns, lining my cock up with her entrance and begins to sink onto it, gasping and moaning as she struggles to take it in. If I had thought she was tight with my fingers, I was being stupid. As she's trying to take my cock into herself, she's almost painfully tight, to the point I'm afraid I might actually hurt her. As a little more of me disappears into her tunnel, I can still feel it twitching and clenching every so often, the clenches doing very little to help keep me from finishing just from how tight she is. I'd never admit it, but she's so tight that I'm having to fight tooth and nail to keep from busting inside her already. It's almost like she's a virgin.

As soon as that thought registers in my brain, Sheele suddenly takes a deep breath and slams her hips down, bottoming out and screaming in pain into her hand. I instinctively roll us over, pinning her down and holding her still, not moving an inch.

"Sheele, was that...are you..."

"Not anymore," she says, smiling seductively up at me, despite the pain in her eyes.

"Jesus Christ, Sheele, what the fuck?" I ask. "You can't just...Jesus, it was your...Why would you..."

"I thought you don't care," Sheele says, raising an eyebrow.

I sigh heavily, cupping her face and leaning down, pressing my lips lightly to her forehead. It's probably the most incriminating thing I could have done, arguably more so than if I had stopped her before, but at this point I can't bring myself to actually care.

"You should have told me it was your first time, idiot," I say. "I could have made it hurt less."

"I don't mind," She says, reaching up and curling her fingers around my left hand. "You can move now. I'm alright."

I sigh, nodding, and shift my hands to the bed to support my weight, allowing her to turn her right hand to lace our fingers together. I shouldn't. I know I shouldn't. She'll get the wrong idea if I let her. She'll think I care. Which I don't. But I don't have it in me to pull my hand away. So, I ignore it, instead focusing on keeping myself slow and controlled as I pull almost all the way out before pushing back in. She whimpers as I do, clearly not as okay as she wants me to believe, but she doesn't look like it's too painful to keep going, so I continue. After a few repetitions, she moans lowly, rolling her hips against me, urging me to go faster. I comply, speeding up a little and she moans a little louder. I begin to speed up more quickly. A couple of times I get a little to eager and Sheele winces, but I slow back down, giving her a moment to adjust before speeding up again. As I'm nearing a fairly decent pace, I grit my teeth. I'm just about at the limit for how long I can hold back.

It's not my fault. She so ridiculously tight. And she's soaked. Part of it might be blood, since it's her first time, but it still feels incredible. Even as tight as she is, I'm sliding in and out without a problem, and it feels as though her tunnel is trying to pull me back in every time I pull out, as if Sheele's body instinctively wants more. Unfortunately, within a few more thrusts, it's obvious that she wants more than I've got in me. I try desperately to hold it back, and wait as long as I can, but finally I can't help it. I start to pull out only for Sheele to suddenly flip us, somehow, miraculously, managing to get my cock into her mouth before the first wave flies out of it. She bobs her head rapidly, milking me dry with her tongue as I groan.

"Shit Sheele," I groan. "You have no idea how good you are at that."

Sheele hums with satisfaction, sending an electric jolt through my prick and somehow making it get hard again instantly, despite it having been starting to deflate. After a moment, she sits up, releasing my cock and smiling.

"Your cum tastes really good," she smiles.

"Yeah sure," I snort. "And I bet you actually finished before I did too."

"Well, no, but I don't mind that," Sheele says. "I actually mean it, though. You taste really good."

I shake my head, sighing. "Whatever." I flinch as her hand closes around my member, stroking me slowly.

Sheele smiles at my reaction. "Someone's a little sensitive."

"And someone's still drunk and bound to regret this in the morning," I counter.

"Oh stop saying that," Sheele smiles, lining my member up with her entrance again. "I'm not going to regret anything."

Then, she lowers herself onto me. I groan loudly instantly as a tidal wave of sensations crashes into me as her tunnel engulfs my hyper-sensitive prick. She begins to bounce instantly, crying out in pleasure as she does, hands clenching against my chest. I grit my teeth, trying to ignore how indescribably amazing it feels, thrusting up into her in time with her dropping her hips. I rest my hands on her hips, using them to pull her down into me as I thrust upward. Then, my right hand slips down, thumb beginning to rub small fast circles over her clit. Her hips buck almost instantly as she cries out louder than before. By now, I'm sure the others are probably so tired of hearing us that they're about ready to come break the door down and beat the shit out of at the very least me to get us to shut up, but I really couldn't care less.

After a few more thrusts, I feel myself running out of rope rapidly again, but when I look up at Sheele, her face is screwed up in effort and concentration. I realize suddenly that her insides are squirming and twitching around me. She's probably about as close as I am, finally. If not closer. I sit up, attaching my lips to the base of her neck for several long seconds, giving her a nice dark spot to have to hide later.

"Please tell me you're close," I manage to say, voice clipped and strained from trying to keep from finishing again.

"Yes!" she gasps, voice even more strained and weak than mine.

"Then just cum already for Christ's sake!" I say.

She actually manages to let out a laugh before seeming to snap, sucking in a sharp gasp before jerking, insides clenching down on me painfully as her entire body bucks and shakes. Before I can even consider pulling out, her hips slam down into mine and the first wave of semen explodes out of my cock, flooding into her rapidly. My senses grow hazy instantly as my body takes over, bucking up into her and pumping wave after wave of semen into her, Sheele screaming and crying out each time, insides milking me dry. I'm too dazed and disoriented to be sure, but I'm pretty sure at some point during it I hear my name, and I think I might also have said hers. But again, I'm too out of it to be sure. Finally, I'm completely spent and my senses start to return. We're still sitting up, and I'm still inside of her, though quickly deflating now, and her arms are around my shoulders, her head resting on my right shoulder, my own arms wrapped around her back, holding her against me as my head rests with my lips against her shoulder. I lift my head, resting my chin on her shoulder instead and realize that we're both panting. I lay back, gently slipping out of her and shifting her to lay with her head on my shoulder.

"That was amazing," Sheele finally says after we've been silent for nearly three minutes, both of us _still_ breathing hard.

"Yeah," I manage to say. "Amazing."

After a moment, she shifts, lifting herself up and smiling down at me. Then, she leans down, capturing my lips with her own. I freeze, eyes widening slightly for several long seconds before she pulls back.

"Sorry," she says. "I just wanted one."

I sigh, reaching up and capturing her lips, feeling her begin to kiss me back instantly. The kiss is slow and chaste, as much as I don't want it to be. If it stays like this, it has to mean something. It's not just a product of alcohol, or sex. But try as I might, I can't bring myself to change anything. I just allow the kiss to stay slow, and innocent, and incriminating. As I do, I feel my stomach start to flutter, and my head starts to feel weightless. I try to fight it, ignore it, smother it, but I can't. Finally, I pull back, breaking the kiss and gently guiding her head back to my shoulder.

"I'm glad it was you," Sheele says, my throat instantly closing off, keeping me from saying anything.

"I don't care," I finally manage to say, but my voice is cracked and weak, and I can feel the muscles in Sheele's cheek contract as she smiles.

She turns her head, pressing her lips to my skin gently before setting her head back down. "Whatever you say."

I swallow hard, closing my eyes and trying to will myself to sleep.

* * *

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	6. Chapter 6

Invaded

I swallow hard, closing my eyes and trying to will myself to sleep. However, try as I might, my brain won't shut down. Sheele's does. She's asleep within a few seconds, but as the hours tick by, I simply lay awake. Suddenly, as the sky outside is beginning to lighten and the light reaches that point where it's too dark to see, but too bright for your body to use its night vision, I sense a presence appear at our hideout and sit bolt upright, Sheele jerking awake and looking around, seeming disoriented for a moment before she also senses the intruder. We both leap out of bed, pulling our clothes on before grabbing our weapons, which I'm thankful I had with me when I came into Sheele's room, before we both sprint out into the hallway. Almost as soon as we do, we find a dozen men wearing black leather tube tops and G-strings with black shoulder-length gloves bearing metal claws for fingers, and white masks with black hair in various spiked styles waiting in the hallway, all crouched on their hands and knees.

"Gross," I say, drawing my sword as Sheele draws her scissors. "Let's clear the roaches out of our house, shall we?"

Sheele nods and we both charge, the invaders doing the same. They're fast and agile, despite their extremely muscular builds, but Sheele and I quickly slaughter our way through them, repainting the hallway with their blood and corpses. After about three minutes, we're down to one, which leaps at Sheele from behind. She begins to turn, but as she does, she gasps, her legs suddenly giving out.

"Sheele!" I shouted, stepping in front of her, the guy's claws driving themselves into my stomach.

"Jason!" Sheele gasps.

The guy looks up at me and his eyes widen, less than a second before I drive my sword down through his face. I rip it back out and sigh, pulling his hand out of my abdomen. Anger floods me instantly. How dare he invade our home? How dare he attack Sheele, and stab me? I grit my teeth, forcing myself back under control and look down at my abdomen and the distinct lack of injuries there.

"Are you alright?" I ask Sheele, kneeling in front of her.

She stares at my abdomen for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. My legs are just a little sore."

"For the time being, I'm going to assume that's a compliment," I say. "Come on. We need to find the others."

She nods, standing, and we continue down the hallway. However, after a few minutes, as we're nearing the front door, it suddenly bursts open and man with a silver cuirass, black pants, and sword blades for arms from the elbows down walks in, grinning widely.

"What luck, I get to rape someone after all," he grins. "I was afraid all the pretty Night Raid sluts would be taken out by That bastard Stylish, but it looks like I managed to find one that escaped his little trap."

"Trap?" Sheele asks. "What do you mean?"

"Where are the others?" I ask.

"They all went out to the woods somewhere," the man shrugs. "Not that it matters. you're about to die, and then I'm going to chop off your hot friend's arms and legs and fuck her till she dies!"

He streaks forward, slashing across his body with both arms, like a pair of scissors, only for my blade to block both of his. His eyes widen as I grin widely. Then, Sheele flips over me, slashing at him from above. He flips to the side, avoiding the strike and I charge, slashing at him rapidly. He backpedals quickly, grinning as he fends off my blows with both of his blades.

"You caught me off guard for a second there when you blocked that, a lot of people don't," he says, then spins around me, slashing at my back, only for me to pivot, deflecting the slash and slashing back at him. "However, I'll be finishing you off right...now!"

He spins around my blade, stabbing at me. Before it can hit me, however, Sheele steps up against my back, blocking the stab with her scissors, deflecting the blade to the side. The man stumbles and Sheele moves her scissors out of my way. I leap forward instantly, taking the man's head off before stopping, turning and splitting him up the back, cutting his spine in half the long way. Then, Sheele and I sprint out of the hideout, seeing a dust cloud off to the side, in a clearing in the trees. However, when the dust cleared, there was someone standing in a crater. It's too dark and too far away to tell who they are, but they have what looks like a staff for a weapon, one with which they instantly begin to slaughter the enemies that practically fill the clearing. I can make out the others as well, and aside from Tatsumi, the others are all on the ground.

"Let's go," I say. "We need to make sure they're okay."

Sheele nods and we begin to run, reaching the clearing just as all of the now dead enemies erupt into fireballs. The others are safe but the blue-haired guy with the staff is caught up in the explosion. When the smoke clears, however, he's not as wounded as he should be. His left arm is missing, and a chunk from his right side, but they both regenerate instantly. The guy's got a pair of horns on the sides of his head and a white collared gi with a long-sleeved black shirt under it that has a red circle with a square missing on the chest, a black cloth belt with red metal splints hanging from it on the sides, white pants, and black sandals. His staff has several round white segments on one end and a ring on the other that had two white tassels hanging from it. He walks over to Mine and sets his staff on its larger end, reaching down and brushing Mine's messy hair back into place.

"There," he says.

"Excuse me, who are you?" I ask, sword in hand.

"My name is Susanoo," he says. "I am a living Imperial Arms."

"Really?" I ask. "I wouldn't have guessed that after watching your arm regrow."

"I-"

"Susanoo!" the boss's voice suddenly calls out from a flying manta ray above us. "The enemy is on the southeast ledge! Don't let them escape!"

"Got it!" Susanoo calls back, turning and sprinting away.

After a moment, he jumps, the manta ray catching him and carrying him away from the clearing. I sigh, sheathing my sword as Sheele sits down, wincing and beginning to massage her thighs.

"Someone a little sore?" Leone asks, grinning.

"Shut it," I grumble, just as the ground shakes violently and a massive humanoid Danger Beast suddenly begins to grow to the southeast, its head and right arm both mechanical. "What the hell is that thing?"

Tatsumi turns to go and help Susanoo, but Akame catches his cape.

"Tatsumi, if you can move, take me with you," Akame says.

He pauses for a moment before nodding. "Sure."

He kneels, allowing her to climb onto his back with her sword before he takes off, racing toward the massive creature.

"I suppose I could go and help them too," I say, thumb rubbing the inside of my ring. "Nah. They've got it handled."

"Excellent," Leone smiles. "Then you get to stay here and answer all of our questions."

"Wait for me!" I shut, taking a single step before Mine's legs tangle with my own and Lubbock wraps me in his metal wire. "You guys suck."

Just then, the manta ray flies down low to the ground.

"Mine!" the boss calls out.

Mine grabs her gun instantly and points it downward, firing and hurling herself into the air, the manta catching her and speeding off again.

"So, how was it?" Leone asks, completely ignoring the battle going on behind her.

"You know, they really look like they need help," I say.

"You don't care," Leone says. "I bet it was pretty good. You two definitely sounded like it was. It was damn-near impossible to get any sleep thanks to you two."

I groan, setting my forehead on the ground. "When I get out of this, I'm killing both of you."

Leone and Lubbock both laugh and Sheele scoots over to sit beside me, cutting me free but then laying on my back.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Going back to sleep," Sheele says.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because I was up late last night and I'm still tired," she says.

The others laugh again and I sigh, slipping up from under her and standing, brushing the loose grass and dirt off of my blood-splattered clothes. They've been stained with it for about three jobs now, so it's about time to get new ones anyway.

"Let's head back to the hideout," I say. "I'm sure the others are on their way there already."

However, before I can take more than two steps, the manta flies down to circle around the clearing.

"Get up here everyone," the boss calls out. "We're leaving."

I sigh, then jump, landing on the manta, and sitting down near the thing's tail, away from the others, though Sheele sits beside me within a few seconds. The others, including the boss, all shoot us knowing grins, but no one says anything else. So, we all fall silent, riding the manta away from our hideout. After a few hours, we reach an area where the boss says we'll be staying from now on. Then, she begins to introduce out new members. First is a girl named Chelsea, who has long light auburn hair, a black sweater vest over a white blouse, a red plaid skirt, black stockings, and white headphones. She has constantly had a sucker in her mouth since I got on the manta, and she got Akame to accept her instantly by offering her one as well. She seems even more innocent than Tatsumi, but the boss claims she's completed as many missions as Akame. The other is Susanoo, the boss's new Imperial Arms, who apparently is excellent at household chores and at building houses, considering he built them a new very large home within minutes while also cooking and doing laundry.

"What...interesting members we've got," I say as I watch Susanoo flash back and forth between cooking and doing laundry.

"You're right," Sheele nods. "I think it'll be fun to have them around."

I have to disagree, since Chelsea is teasing Mine about having small breasts, and Lubbock is laughing at Susanoo for being an Imperial Arms and gloating that he won't lose to him. I sigh.

"Enough you three," I say, everyone turning to me. "Chelsea, stop picking on Mine. You're not much bigger. Lubbock, stop making fun of Susanoo, he's about the most useful person here. plus, he just saved your life. We're all tired and need to sleep, and if you three can't get along, you're just going to cause more of us to join Bulat, is that what you want?"

Everyone's silent for a long moment.

"Getting laid really made him open up," Leone grins.

I give her a cold stare. "Open your mouth again, and I'll send _you_ to join Bulat."

Sheele sets her hand on my shoulder and I narrow my eyes at Leone, daring her to speak.

"He's right," the boss says. "We have to learn to get along. Come on. Everyone head inside. We'll discuss our next move before going to bed."

We all nod and follow her inside.

* * *

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	7. Chapter 7

Hunting

I rub my temple in silence. Chelsea's not settling in as well as Susanoo. Susanoo has settled in perfectly. He's been training Tatsumi, myself, and Sheele when he gets the time, and has been helping Akame gather and cook the food, and doing the bulk of the chores around the house. Chelsea, on the other hand, has been antagonizing Mine constantly, and trying to antagonize the others by calling Bulat a failure as an assassin for dying, and calling Sheele a failure for having to be saved, and for falling in love. I had to work hard to remind myself that I don't care about anyone or what they say as I had to listen to that. But boy did the other side of my personality want to snap her neck for talking about Sheele that way. Chelsea didn't, however, accuse me of the second one. In fact, she claimed I was an exceptional Assassin because I didn't give a single fuck about who I killed, used, or hurt. I would do anything I had to in order to complete the job, no more, no less. Again I found it oddly hard to not rip her head off as she said that.

"You okay?" Sheele asks, sitting beside me on the front porch where I'm watching Chelsea and Mine argue about whether or not Night Raid is too naïve.

"I'm liking her less and less," I say. "And the others are getting pretty annoying talking abut whether or not I care."

"Do you?" Sheele asks.

"Not at all," I say. "All I care about is money."

"And what we did was..."

"Money and to pass the time," I say.

Sheele smiles, nodding. "I see. Alright. I suppose I'll just have to work a little harder."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Don't worry," she smiles. "Come on. Let's train."

I sigh, following her as she walks away from the house.

* * *

I stare up at the castle. It's shaped exactly like the last, under a cliff's overhang like the last, and is surrounded by woods exactly like the last.

"So...are the rooms the same?" I ask.

"Yep," the boss says.

"After we get off work today, let's have drinks," Leone says.

"That sounds great!" Chelsea and Mine said, about the only thing they could agree on.

"And maybe then Sheele can loosen Jason up a bit more," Leone adds, grinning.

I glare at her and she laughs just as Lubbock runs over.

"Miss Najenda!" Lubbock calls out, the boss looking over. "I've finished erecting a barrier around the base!"

"Good," the boss says.

"I've finished digging an emergency escape tunnel as well," Susanoo says, walking over with a shovel.

"Oh that was fast," the boss says. "Well done Susanoo."

"Her name's Najenda?" I ask.

"Yeah, you never knew?" Sheele asks.

"Nope."

Lubbock runs over to Susanoo, beginning to argue with him about whether or not Susanoo is beating Lubbock in Lubbock's made up competition for popularity. Finally, Najenda stops them and we all head inside to Najenda's throne room, gathering around it as she sits down.

"I know we've only just gotten here, but our enemy this time is the new Danger Beast," Sheele says. "They tend to act in packs, and seem to have some intelligence. Physically they are quite strong, and most of the fighters that have challenged them have lost. People and livestock around the dense forests and mines have been attacked. Apparently, the Jaegers and the capital soldiers have been exterminating them daily, but their numbers aren't dropping, and the casualties have become great."

"Based on the trouble the Capital has been having with this, it doesn't seem to be a trap," Mine says.

"Simply put, we're going to end up helping the capital," Najenda says. "Got it?"

"Of course!" Tatsumi grins, one fist held up. "This time, it can't be helped."

"Considering what we just heard, they should be taken care of at once," Akame says.

"But I'd like to avoid bumping heads with the soldiers," Leone says, Najenda staring at her like she has two heads.

"We are Night Raid," Najenda says. "We can simply move at night when the capital's side rests."

"Oh, right," Leone says.

"You idiot," I sigh, earning a glare.

Suddenly, Chelsea sighs loudly. "Putting ourselves in danger and exterminating some monsters. We should just leave this to the Jaegers. You guys really are naïve."

"You have a point," I say. "We're going to run the risk of meeting Esdeath, or worse, on this mission. But we're going. Night Raid as a group can't allow innocents to be killed, especially since the Danger Beasts are in the south and could become a threat to the Revolutionary Army. I, myself, am going because I need to kill something. I'm starting to get angry, and I need to vent a bit to calm down."

"You sound like a psychopath," Chelsea says.

"Jason is right," Tatsumi says. "We may be assassins, but I believe we're on the people's side. I want to exterminate the Danger Beasts as soon as possible. Before they can hurt anyone else."

"Hey Tatsumi," I say.

"Hm?"

"Your fly is down," I say.

He looks down and shouts in surprise, hurriedly pulling it back up as the others begin to laugh at him, Leone and Lubbock especially ragging on him for it. I shake my head, the barest hint of a smile appearing on my face, only to vanish as Sheele steps in front of me, leaning in close as though looking for one.

"I saw that," she says. "You smiled."

"You're hallucinating," I say. "I'm going to go and rest until nightfall. I'll take my usual room."

* * *

I remain silent as I walk alongside Sheele. We're in the woods, and so far we've found a hell of a lot of nothing. Not a single Danger Beast, of any kind, has come after us. And what's worse, it's actually a very beautiful night out. Our stroll through the woods has actually been pretty nice, and it's making it hard for me to ignore Sheele, or to not remember that night a little over a month ago when I had slipped up and allowed myself to care. Though, I'll never admit that.

"It's beautiful out tonight," Sheele says, looping her arms around my right one.

I grunt noncommittally and Sheele smiles, resting her head on my shoulder.

"You know, I never regretted it," she says. "I'm really happy we did that."

I swallow hard, and remain silent, eyes roving the trees around us. I need a Danger Beast. Even something as simple as a class three will do. Just something to get me away from Sheele and out of this conversation. But there's nothing.

"Do you regret it?" Sheele asks.

I don't answer. I make it a point to never answer loaded questions. And I have yet to hear a more loaded question in my entire life.

Sheele smiles and squeezes my arm lightly. Just then, a branch snaps off to the side and we spin, Sheele releasing my arm and drawing her scissors as I draw my sword. As we do, a Danger Beast that looks something like a human charges out of the trees. It's got armor on its right arm, its lips are partially fused together, and it's about double Bulat's size. Then, just as I jump and split that one's head open, a dozen more charge out of the trees. They all look roughly the same. Same behemoth build, same chalky grey skin, same bald heads. And they also all die just as easily. However, the problem isn't their individual strength. Sheele and I can handle that. The problem is their numbers. After a minute, we've fought our way to a clearing and suddenly we're swarmed. For every one we kill, it seems like two more arrive. I grit my teeth, ducking as several punch at me at the same time, and spin, slashing them all. Then, as I stand, I slash another. It collapses just in time for Sheele to leap away from on, landing beside me.

"There's a lot of them," I say. "I might need to use my ring after all."

"It's starting to look that way," she nods. "But they seem to be slowing down."

I look around and nod. they're not appearing quite as quickly as before. Maybe we're doing better than I thought. I spin, severing an arm that was reaching for me, then kill its owner just as a rock the size of my head sails past my head. Sheele screams and I spin, seeing her lying on the ground, blood coating the side of her head and several Danger Beasts lunging for her. Rage explodes through me instantly and in the blink of an eye I'm in front of her. I punch one, sending its head flying into another so hard that both exploded like watermelons. Then, I drive my hand into the other's abdomen level with the bottom of its ribcage, snapping its sternum in half before lifting it and hurling it aside.

As I do, I begin to grow, gaining several inches as my dark blue hair lightens to ice blue, growing from its short, messy, swept back style to hanging just past my shoulder. My fingernails grow into claws, my teeth grow pointed and sharp like shark teeth, my mouth growing, stretching back toward the back of my face. I blink and my sight darkens, except for the Danger Beasts around me, which glow a bright, angry red, giving a whole new definition to the saying "seeing red." Lastly, the flesh around my eyes darkens and pitch black tears begin to run down my cheeks from my eyes. The Danger Beasts around me roar, all charging. However, as they do, I begin to tear them apart. Literally. The first that reaches me, I catch by the throat and wrist, then rip his arm off and crush his neck so hard his head shoots into the air. I drop his body and slam the arm into another Danger Beast's torso, the arm all but exploding and caving in the Danger Beast's torso. Then, I catch the head that was sent into the air before and slam it down on another's head, splattering both. From there, the carnage continues in much the same fashion, not a single Danger Beast landing a hit on me. I obliterate everything. Finally, I catch the last by the face, lifting it into the air just as a capital soldier steps out of the trees, freezing as he stares at me. I crush the Danger Beast's head and its blood splatters over me.

The soldier shrieks in panic and spins, fleeing back into the trees and disappearing from sight instantly. I sigh, wiping the blood off of my face and shaking it off of my hands before beginning to shrink, my hair and fingernails receding back to normal as my face's skin lightens and my eyes return to normal. I wipe the black off of my face with my sleeve and kneel beside Sheele, who's watching me blankly.

"Are you alright?" I ask, gently tilting her head to the side so I can inspect her injury.

Fortunately, it's fairly shallow and minor.

"You used it," Sheele says. "Why?"

"I lost my temper," I say.

"Because I was hurt?" Sheele asks, the barest hint of a smile on her lips.

"Don't make this a thing," I say, pulling her up and helping her steady herself when she sways. "They were just annoying me."

"Of course," she smiles, wiping the blood off of her face and picking up her scissors. "Well, now that I've got a concussion, we should head back."

I nod and we turn heading back toward the hideout.

* * *

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	8. Chapter 8

Mine

I grit my teeth, clenching my fists as I watch from the rafters. I had known I wouldn't like this job from the moment we got assigned it. We were supposed to take down a prostitution gang in the capital by killing of its boss, as well as any and every patron and worker in the gang. It was easy enough. In fact, Sheele and I had already killed everyone in four of the five separate buildings where the gang operated. Now, the only building left was an old factory building with curtain dividers to give at least visual privacy for anyone currently partaking in the gang's services. We were careful to keep the other buildings from sending a warning, which was a bit trickier than I'd have liked, so I still have the element of surprise. However, with the element of surprise comes the plan for the job. First, Sheele had to infiltrate. Not a hard task. She just stripped down to her underwear and hid among the prostitutes. Then, she had to find the boss. Slightly harder but still not terribly difficult. In each building, she would work her way through the building, struggling to avoid the gang's patrons until she found someone that knew where the boss was, then allowed them to molest her while tricking them into spilling whether or not the boss of the gang was in that building. As soon as we found out he wasn't, it was game on, and everyone in the building who wasn't a prostitute, or who tried to attack was fair game. Four times now I had had to watch Sheele get molested. Now is number five. Except, now it's different. This time, the boss was sitting in a throne at one end of the warehouse, smoking a cigar as one of his prostitutes sucked his dick.

Sheele found him easily, and marked him as our target, but before I could do anything, she had been caught by a pair of guards and taken to the boss, who had recognized her. Then, he had summoned one of his customers, the same soldier that had seen me killing the Danger Beast in the woods. The boss had offered to have the guard forget he saw her as long as Sheele serviced him to his liking. I was about to drop in and kill them all when Sheele had signaled me to wait. I'm not sure why, but I've got little choice but to trust her. So, here I am, watching Sheele suck our target off as the soldier watches from off to the side where a prostitute is sucking him off as well. Of course, the other side of my personality doesn't like what I'm being forced to watch, and I'm barely able to restrain him.

"You're good," the gang's boss says, grinning wickedly at Sheele. "You're probably better than any of the whores I've got working for me. But you're not as stealthy an assassin as you think. Did you think I didn't know about you slaughtering my workers in my other buildings?"

Sheele pulls back instantly, only for the boss's fist to drill into her face, knocking her backward. Still she didn't signal. I wrack my brain to try and figure out what she's waiting for.

"You're pathetic," the boss says, snapping his fingers. "Lugo, teach her a lesson."

"With pleasure," the soldier says, shoving the prostitute away from himself and putting his dick away, walking over and kicking Sheele in the face, then beginning t kick her in the ribs.

Finally, a heavy vault door opens off to the side, one that we'd have never gotten into, and a fat man with white hair, a white bears, and six prostitutes hanging off of his arms walks out. Then, I understand. This man is the real boss. He was untouchable before, and would have remained that way had we attacked. The one I thought was the boss was the figurehead. The decoy.

"Now!" Sheele shouts, catching the soldier's leg and breaking his knee before standing.

The decoy boss grabs a shotgun from beside his chair, but I land in front of him, my eyes turning red with slit pupils before I slash him up the front, splitting him in half. Then, it's chaos. Everyone's running around screaming, the guards and soldiers employed by the boss, or that enjoy the boss's prostitutes, all attack us, and we slaughter them. And Sheele, who is currently fighting without her scissors, uses a stolen sword to make a beeline for the actual boss, catching him and taking his head off before he can escape. As she fights her way back to me, I head for her as well, pulling her scissors off of my back and pass it to her when I reach her. Then, a few minutes later, we finish the rest of the clients and the warehouse falls silent, except for the soldier whose leg Sheele broke screaming. I walk over, allowing my rage to consume me as I do, and pick him up by the throat. He screams as he recognizes me, fighting to break free but unable to do anything dangling twenty feet in the air.

"I don't appreciate people damaging my property," I snarl.

"W-What?" he stammers. "I didn't damage anything!"

"Yes you did," I growl. "You were quite happy to kick her again and again. So I'm going to make you pay for every single one!"

I drive one clawed finger into his left eye, gouging it out, then his right. Then, I drive four up into his genitals, ruining everything before ripping them completely off as I rip my fingers out. The soldier screams in agony, collapsing to the ground as I release him. Then, I take a long, slow breath as I shift back and turn to Sheele, who's watching me with the same emotionless look she did the last time I used that ability.

"I hate it when you do that," she says.

"I know," I say. "But I wasn't able to hold him back any longer after spending all day watching you get molested and beaten."

"Why's that?" she asks, smiling slightly and raising an eyebrow.

I roll my eyes, sighing. "Let's get back. The others are waiting."

"Aren't you going to kill him?" she asks, gesturing at the soldier.

"Nope," I say. "He can live out whatever remains of his life as a blind eunuch."

Sheele nods and we leave the building, quickly making our way through the city and the forest outside of it, reaching our hideout relatively quickly. We find the others in the dining room, Susanoo setting several dishes down, including one for me and Sheele.

"Perfect timing," Najenda smiles. "How did the mission go?"

"The next time we get sent after a prostitution ring, I'm just killing everyone," I growl, sitting down and tearing into my chicken drumsticks aggressively.

"Did something happen?" Leone asks.

"He's not a fan of my method of drawing the leader out," Sheele said. "He got so mad he slipped up and used his other abilities."

"His ring?" Tatsumi asks. "That's not really that bad, is it? I've seen him use it before."

"Not the ring," I say, staring at my half-eaten drumstick. "The ring is just a tool. A weapon from my home that I stole long ago."

"What then?" Najenda asks. "What power are you hiding that's so great as to be able to heal Sheele's fatal wound and get you all away safely, but so dangerous as to need to be suppressed constantly?"

I remain silent for a long while before standing, pushing my plate away. "I'm not hungry."

"Tell us what you're hiding," Najenda says. "If you don't, I'll lose what little trust I have in you, and you will be treated as an enemy."

"You would all die trying to kill me," I warn. I stare at the floor before sighing heavily. "Fine. Restrain me. Otherwise things will get a bit...messy."

The others all look around at each other before nodding. I sigh, sitting in a chair and holding my hands behind me. A moment later, Lubbock has me bound with a thick layer of wire.

"More," I say.

He ads more, coating my body in it below my neck.

"More."

He blinks and shakes his head, forming a cocoon around my body. I sigh and close my eyes, allowing the other side of me out. Except, he doesn't respond. I open my eyes, blinking and staring down at my cocooned body.

"I...don't understand," I say. "What, don't tell me you've got stage fright now."

"Is that it?" Akame asks. "Don't you have control over it?"

"Would I be restrained right now if I had control?" I ask. "I've never...willingly let it out before. It's always..."

"Always what?" Akame asks.

"Always been an accident," I finish. "Whenever I get too angry."

"Any suggestions?" Lubbock asks. "I could try hitting you."

I stare at him blankly. "Do you really think I'd still be alive if getting hit made me mad enough to lose control?"

"He's right," Chelsea says. "It'd have to be something bigger."

"I could kick him in the balls," Leone suggests.

"I could make you as flat-chested as Mine," I counter, Leone and Mine both punching me. I roll my eyes. "Any other great ideas?"

"I might have one," Tatsumi says. "Maybe not a great one, but...well..."

"What is it?" Najenda asks.

"The first time he used it was when he, Sheele, and Mine were fighting Seryu and Coro, right?" Tatsumi asks. "And then Sheele was shot?"

"That's right," Mine nods.

"What about other times recently?" Tatsumi asks.

"One was when we were fighting those humanoid Danger Beasts," Sheele says. "I got hit and he used it to kill the rest of them."

"And then he used it today when you were being molested and beaten," Akame says. "I get it. So it has to be you then."

In the blink of an eye, she spins, swinging her sword down at Sheele. However, before she can, rage floods through me and I shift in the amount of time it takes the others to blink. The cords explode off of me and I draw my sword, stepping between them and blocking Akame's sword, my free hand grabbing her by the throat, her eyes widening in surprise as I lift her off of the ground.

"Put her down, now!" Najenda shouts.

"Drop her!" Mine shouts, aiming at me.

"Do you really think that toy will be enough?" I ask, voice rumbling deeply.

Mine grits her teeth and I throw Akame away before spinning and catching Susanoo's staff just below the head, holding it immobile, Susanoo's eyes widening in shock.

"That's enough Jason!" Sheele says, resting a hand on my shoulder. "Look at her sword!"

I hurl Susanoo away and look to the sword, staring at the sheath that still covers the blade. At most, it might have bruised. I feel my anger fading and begin to shrink, hair and claws retracting. After a moment, I'm back to normal and I exhale slowly, forcing my anger the rest of the way under control.

"I thought I said to restrain me," I say.

"You broke through the wires like it was nothing," Lubbock says. "What are you?"

"He's a demon," Najenda says. "Aren't you?"

"Sort of," I say. "I was possessed. But then someone tried to cast the demon out. But they mispronounced a word and instead of casting them out, they fused our souls."

"So you're part demon now?" Leone asks.

"It's like the other half of my personality," I say. "It's powerful, obviously, but I clearly can't control it. It's just evil."

"No," Akame says. "It's just angry. And possessive. It's extremely protective of Sheele."

Leone grins widely. "I knew you cared!"

"I don't care!" I snap, then grit my teeth, forcing myself to calm down. "I don't care about Sheele. She's a convenient pastime at best."

The others all grin knowingly and I roll my eyes.

"In any event, make sure you keep yourself under control in the future," Najenda says. "There may be missions that require rather...unsavory activities in order to complete them. You can't fly off the handlebars just because you disagree."

"Tell that to him," I snort. "Anyway, I'm going to bed. After letting him out twice in a day, I need to rest."

The others all nod and I walk out of the room. I make it as far as my room before anger flashes through me and I punch the door, shattering it. I grit my teeth, clutching my head as pain sears through it, a deep gravelly voice laughing.

_"We seem to be getting along,"_ the voice says.

"Shut up," I growl, collapsing onto my bed. "Shut up! You just go back into your cage where you belong."

_"I don't think_ _so,"_ the voice says. _"This body belongs to me."_

"No!" I snap. "It's mine! You can't have it! Just leave!"

_"It is rightfully mine,"_ the voice says. _"I_ will_ claim it as my own."_

"I said no!" I shout. "Just leave me alone!"

"I'm sorry," Sheele says from behind me, my eyes widening in surprise. "I just wanted to help."

"Wait!" I say as she turns to leave. "I'm sorry. I wasn't talking to you."

_"No, you were talking to me,"_ the voice says.

"You shut the fuck up you bastard," I growl. "Go back where you belong."

The voice chuckles. _"Alright. I'll let you have control for now. Keep my body warm for me, will you?"_

Then, my anger starts to fade and I sigh as Sheele sits in front of me, gently cupping my face.

"It's not a weakness to care about someone, you know," Sheele says.

I brush her hand aside. "I don't care about you. I don't need you, Night Raid, or anyone else. All I care about is getting rid of this fucking parasite that's attached to my soul. I'll sacrifice anyone and anything to get that. You're not special just because I happened to fuck you."

"I know," Sheele says, cupping my face again. "But ever since I met you, I've been able to do the one thing that I've ever been useful at more. I'm useless at everything. Cooking, cleaning, sewing. The only thing I can do well is kill and comfort those I care about."

I turn my head away, staring out the window. "Who hurt you?"

Sheele's silent for a long time before speaking. "I had a friend when I was younger. The only person who didn't hate me. But then one day, I killed her abusive boyfriend to defend her. And I was completely calm about it. A few days later his drunk friends came to kill me in retribution and I killed them all too. I realized that was the one thing I was useful for. But I never saw my friend again."

"I'm so sorry," I say. "That's not fair to you."

"Why are you sorry?" Sheele asks. "If it hadn't happened, I wouldn't be here now."

I sigh and nod. "I suppose. Anyway, I really do need to rest."

"Okay," Sheele smiles. "Goodnight Jason."

She places a gentle kiss on my forehead and I ignore the warmth that briefly flares in my chest. Then, she stands and walks out of the room. I sigh, climbing under the covers and pull the blanket up to my neck, drifting off to a sleep filled with nightmares, as usual when I let him out.

* * *

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	9. Chapter 9

Ambushed

I grit my teeth, turning the page of my book and pretending to be reading it, as I have been for the last hour. When Najenda had suggested we draw out the Jaegers, I had been all for it. I've been itching for a rematch with Seryu, and I know that Mine and Sheele are too. However, when Najenda had said that everyone beside her, Akame, and Mine would be the bait, I hadn't expected this. And I had never expected to be sitting on a beach with three extremely attractive women in bikinis in front of me and to not be enjoying myself. Leone and Chelsea were having a water war, which should be more than enough for me to at least watch the show openly, like Lubbock is, rather than pretend to ignore it like Tatsumi is. However, because of how much trouble I was having earlier ignoring Sheele in her own bikini, I've had to use the book to pretend I'm not watching. And I honestly am trying not to. But I can't help looking over at Sheele. She's sun tanning in the smallest bikini I've ever seen, and every single part of my being wants me to interrupt her. And I happily would, too, even with the others right there. Except that the last time I made the mistake of fucking her, I slipped multiple times. I can't risk that again. Not until I'm sure that I can continue to not care.

Then, of course, there's the crawling sensation running up my spine. It's like something, maybe my other half, is trying to warn me about impending danger.

I push myself up finally and Sheele instantly cracks an eye open, smiling up at me. "I've got to use the bathroom."

"Mhm, sure you do," Leone smirks. "You need Sheele to help you with that?"

"Not unless she feels like holding the shit as it's coming out of my asshole," I say, feeling the crawling sensation spike suddenly.

I walk quickly into the trees, grabbing my sword from where it was hidden on the way. Then, as I reach an open area, a chuckle reaches me from above. I look up, staring at the man on the cliff above me. He's got a bushy blonde beard, a powerful build, scars up and down his forearms and on his hands, a blood red shirt, jeans, black boots, and messy blonde hair falling to his shoulders and swept back out of his black eyes.

"You," I snarl, crouching and readying myself as he pulls a pair of war axes from behind himself.

They're both steel with the right being longer than usual and the left being a rather plain one. He grins once he has them and drops off the cliff, cratering the ground as he lands before sprinting forward and swiping at me rapidly. I deflect the slashes rapidly, backpedaling as I do. Finally, I leap backward only for him to chase me. However, before he can swing his longer axe at me again, it snags on wires. His grin widens and he leaps backward, narrowly avoiding a slash from Sheele's scissors.

"So this is where you were going," Sheele says. "Who is he?"

"Trouble," I say. "You all need to leave right now." I step past the others, readying myself as he chuckles, his right axe resting on his shoulder and the other hanging loosely at his side.

"He looks strong," Tatsumi says.

"He is," I say. "And he'll tear you all apart if you fight him. Leave."

"You're not fighting him alone," Sheele says. "We'll handle him together."

"If you insist," the man grins, charging, moving much faster than before, laying almost level with the ground and holding his axes at his sides.

As he draws near, he lunges at Sheele, slashing downward at her, Sheele moving to block it. However, I step into the way, deflecting the axe into the ground before slamming my knee into his face, knocking him backward. He staggers away and I lunge, slashing rapidly, the man blocking the blows as quickly as I can through them. Finally, he spins around me, slashing from behind only for Tatsumi to block it. The man grins widely, slashing downward at him from above, but I grab him by the back of the collar, throwing him away and sidestep the axe, slashing upward and smashing the handle, pivoting and slashing at the man's head. He bends backward, narrowly avoiding the slash before I jump, spinning and slam a kick into his chest, hurling him away.

He flips, landing on his feet and embedding his remaining axe blade in the ground, slowing to a stop before grinning and charging again. However, before he can reach us, I swing my free arm, a ball of fire flying out of my hand at him, only for him to slash through it, grinning knowingly.

"It's going to end differently this time," I snarl.

"We'll see," he grins.

Sheele steps forward but as she slashes, he spins around it and slashes up at her. However, before it can reach her, I step into the way, already fully shifted, and catch him by the arms. His eyes widen before narrowing as he grins.

"That explains a lot," he grins.

"Just die!" I shout, exploding into a column of flames, Sheele leaping away just before an explosion shoots off of me, hurling the man.

He flips, landing on his feet again before charging. I meet his charge, my flaming sword meeting his axe in a series of repeated ringing impacts before I flip, slamming a fist into the ground. It all but explodes around me, hurling the man again, this time with his forearms burned by the molten rock I've formed. Then, as he's beginning to stand, I swipe both hands downward, sending a massive wall of flames at him, then turn, fleeing, the others following after a moment of surprise. Once we're a safe distance away, I slow to a stop, shifting back and feeling my anger vanish altogether.

"Who was that guy?" Tatsumi asks. "Why'd we run away when we were winning?"

"We weren't winning," I say. "He was fighting the other side of me and was holding his own while still holding back. We would have all died."

"You don't know that!" Tatsumi says. "I could have used my armor! Those axes weren't Imperial Arms! They wouldn't have gotten through!"

"You're right," I say. "They weren't Imperial Arms. But they would have gotten through your armor just as easily as Sheele's scissors could. Trust me when I tell you, you'd have died. He's too powerful."

"You know him, right?" Sheele asks. "Who is he?"

"He's the reason I was possessed," I say, looking up and seeing a messenger hawk. "I'll explain later. We have a job to do."

They all look up and see the bird. They nod and we all leave, heading to where Najenda told us she'd be setting up the trap.

* * *

I wait in silence as the three Jaegers walk toward Susanoo, who's disguised as a scarecrow. Finally, Mine takes a shot, aiming for Kurome, Akame's younger sister who looks almost identical to Akame. However, at the last second, Kurome dodges the shot. Susanoo reveals himself and charges, swiping at Kurome only for Wave, a blue-haired Jaeger with a sword that changes into a suit of armor, apparently an upgraded version of Incursio, to block it and be sent flying. That's our signal, so we all, minus Mine and Lubbock, drop into the valley as well.

"We failed to snipe you," Najenda says. "But in terms of war, The fact that we blew one who wasn't even a target away is a good start."

I inspect the two in front of us. Seryu isn't present, nor, thank God, is Esdeath, but Kurome is clearly dangerous, and the other guy, a very muscular guy with no shirt, three claw scars on his chest, a massive flamethrower Imperial Arms on his back, and a white and black rubber mask over his face with a sort of speaker in front of his mouth to make it easier for him to communicate, seems to be dangerous as well, though not nearly on Kurome's level.

"Kurome and Bols," Najenda says, addressing our two specific targets from the Jaegers, the ones we meant to kill first. "You're our targets amongst the Jaegers. Brace yourselves!"

I draw my sword as Akame goes to face her sister. However, as she does, Kurome raises her sword, a sphere of pitch black energy appearing over the tip before lightning began to shoot out of it, hitting the ground all around them. Then, as it faded, corpses began to break free of the ground. Then, a massive dragon skeleton broke free, raising Kurome. Eight total, including the dragon.

"Now then, the battle between Imperial Arms Users is about to begin," Kurome says, smiling. "I wonder how many will die."

"You going to try and tell us we can't fight them too?" Tatsumi asks.

"Oh no you're all much better fighters than me," I say. "Well, except maybe you, but we've never really tested that."

"If we're better than you, why couldn't we fight that guy before with you?" Leone asks.

"Because you all use Imperial Arms to fight," I say. "As I said, I'll explain later. Now let's go."

I charge, heading for Bols, and he swings the handle of his Imperial Arms around at me, unleashing a massive stream of flame. However, I grin, my ring glowing as I hold out my free hand, the flames parting around me, allowing me to charge at him freely. At least, until a whip wraps around my outstretched arm, yanking me away and swinging me around, smashing me into a cliff. I push myself up, grumbling a string of curses. That actually hurt. I charge at the whip's wielder, who's using it to keep Leone at bay now. He spins, whipping at me, and I roll under it, springing forward and slashing him across the torso. Except, he doesn't even flinch, instead punting me in the face, launching me backward. I flip, landing on my feet as a bald man appears behind me, kicking me in the side and launching me sideways. I bounce once before someone catches me. They set me on my feet and I glance back, seeing it's Sheele. She's got a scratch in her cheek, and a couple bruises, but otherwise she looks fine.

"I can handle Bols if you can keep the others off me," I say.

She nods and we charge together. However, just as I use my ring to disperse a fireball from Bols, I glance to the side just as Kurome lands behind Leone, who's about to attack the whip wielder alongside Najenda, and slices off her left arm. My eyes grow to the side of saucers before I grit my teeth, turning to the front and dispersing another fireball, then charging through a stream of flames, dispersing it as I go, and pull my sword back. Then, as I reach Bols, I slash. However, my sword sparks against a metal plat on the inside of his forearm and palm. He leaps back and the bald corps leaps at me, swiping a riot shield at me, but I flip over it and slash downward at him as I fall.

He steps out of the way and slams a kick into my head, hurling me backward. Then, he spins, ducking under Sheele's scissors and kicks her away as well. I flip, stabbing my sword into the ground and skidding to a stop before ripping it free of the ground and catching a fireball, hurling it at the bald corpse. He blocks it with his shield and I sprint forward, jumping and planting both feet into the shield, sending a blast of flames out of my feet and hurling him away. I turn toward Bols just as flames part around my body, burning my shirt off due to my late reaction to block them, but not making it to me. I charge, slashing again at the same time as Sheele slashes from behind. The flames end as we near him, and even with his mask, I can tell that he knows he can't escape. He's accepted his fate.

We both finish our slashes and his upper body, along with the top half of his flamethrower, sail into the air. I grab Sheele instantly and leap away on a hunch. Sure enough, a moment later, the pack part of the weapon erupts into a fireball that rapidly spread, quickly forming a crater abut four hundred feet across and sending an enormous mushroom of black smoke into the air. I use my ring to part the explosion around us, and once it fades, I sigh, standing and pulling Sheele up.

"You saved me," Sheele says.

"You're marginally useful in battle," I say, turning and sprinting away and looking around.

The explosion seems to have reached where Kurome had been, because Tatsumi is standing between the explosion and Akame, Leone, and Mine while Susanoo, in some altered form where he's shirtless, has white hair, and a massive black ring floating behind him is between the explosion and Najenda. Kurome is gone, along with the corpse that had been guarding her.

"I think the battle's over," I say. "Let's regroup with the others."

Sheele nods and we quickly make our way to the top of the cliff where the others are waiting. Except for Lubbock and Chelsea.

"Where are the others?" I ask immediately.

"We haven't seen them yet," Najenda says. "You did well taking down Bols, though."

"Thank you," I say. "We should find the others. Then we need to get moving. We'll probably have drawn his attention."

"Whose?" Najenda asks.

"Some guy who attacked us before with axes," Mine says, dress partially dissolved.

"What happened to you?" I ask.

"That damn frog's stomach acid," Mine says, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder.

"I see," I nod. "Anyway, we need to get moving."

The others nod. I glance at Leone, seeing her holding her severed arm.

"Why do you have that?"

"If Lubba stiches it back on, I can heal it," she says.

"Equal parts useful and disgusting," I say. "Not bad. Which way did Kurome head?"

"This way," Akame says, turning and beginning to run, all of us following.

After a few minutes, we reach a clearing in the woods where Lubbock and Chelsea are waiting.

"There you are," I say.

"We lost track of Kurome," Chelsea says. "She had two corpses left, so we couldn't get close."

"That's fine," Najenda says. "Better that we don't lose any of ours than one of our targets gets away."

Both nod and Lubbock walks over, quickly reattaching Leone's arm for her. Then, they all continue East, heading for their current job's location.

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	10. Chapter 10

Warning

I walk down the street in silence, eyes roving the crowd around us while we walk. Sheele, Chelsea, and I were selected for the final assassination of our target, Boric, second-in-command of the church we'll be breaking into. Well, not a church really, but that's the closest word I can think of. Of course, the plan for getting in is far less than entertaining to me. Chelsea's going to pose as one of Boric's concubines in order to get close enough to finish him. While she does, Sheele and I will be ready to defend her if the Jaegers show up.

"I don't like it," I say.

"At least it's not Sheele this time," Chelsea says, licking her ice cream. "Relax. Everything's going to be fine. I'm not even going to have to get molested. Much."

"I don't care," I say. "Get raped all you want. What I don't like is the crawling sensation going up and down my spine. The last time I felt it was just before the fucker with the axes showed up."

"He's here?" Sheele asks. "And you never explained about him."

"No he's not," I say. "It's something else. Don't drop your guard. Either of you."

They both nod and we continue to the main building. Chelsea quickly slips around back and transforms, then slips inside through the front door, Sheele and I waiting outside. We can't sneak in like her, or at least, I can't. Sheele could, but when she suggested it, I slipped up and flew off the handle at her. She didn't necessarily seem offended. Actually, kind of the opposite. As with everything I do, she seemed to take it as proof that I care about her. Which I don't.

"It probably won't be long," I say. "We should wait on opposite sides."

"Okay," Sheele nods.

"Oh, and if that guy from before shows up, just run," I say. "Try to signal me, but get away regardless."

"Is he really that dangerous?" Sheele asks.

"I'm the only one in Night Raid that can face him and survive," I say.

"Because of your other side?" Sheele asks.

"Because of your Imperial Arms," I say. "I promise I'll explain after this mission. Just trust me."

She nods and I head around to the back, finding a window looking in on the main room. What I see sickens me. Dozens of women are inside wearing underwear and see-throw cloths over their mouths. All of them are high as a kite on one drug or another, and half a dozen are pleasuring a man that I can only assume is Boric, the rest all either lying on the ground, too high to move, or playing amongst themselves. I turn away. Chelsea understated what she'd have to do to get to Boric. I remain silent and try to ignore what I hear behind me. However, as the sun begins to rise, Sheele and Chelsea both suddenly step around the corner.

"What happened?" I ask.

"I couldn't get close," Chelsea says. "It seems he's more careful about choosing his concubines than I thought. And when I finally _was_ almost there, he got a report that three of some group known as the Four Rakshasa Demons were killed tonight. Then he left."

"I see," I sigh. "Alright. Let's go and regroup with the others. We'll try again tomorrow."

The others nod and we leave the church, heading to the inn where we were ordered to meet up. The others are all waiting, and when we enter, I close and lock the door behind me.

"I couldn't get close," Chelsea says.

"It's alright," Najenda says. "Our backup plan to have one of the others failed as well because of several assassins assigned to be his bodyguards."

"The Rakshasa Demons," I say. "Who are they?"

"They're a group of highly trained individuals who grew up consuming the broth of lake kraken, granting them the ability to control everything about their bodies," Akame says.

"Everything?" I ask. "So...eternal virgin?"

"You're sick!" Mine spits.

"What?" I snort, sitting down, crossing my legs on the table. "I'm part demon, remember? And even before then, I have no morals. Allow me to enlighten you. All demons fall under one category or another. There are seven categories. Want to guess which?"

"Wrath, Envy, Greed, Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, and Lust," Najenda says. "The seven deadly sins."

"Bingo," I nod. "The demon that possessed me, and later was fused to my soul, is a demon of Wrath. Not a very powerful one, as Wrath demons go, but Wrath is the second most powerful class, as it is the second most seductive sin."

"What's the first?" Tatsumi asks.

"Pride," I say. "Everyone is proud of something. Third is Lust. Then Envy, Sloth, Greed, and Gluttony."

"This is all well and good, but what does it have to do with you being an unbearable, immoral piece of-" I interrupt Mine with a wave of my hand.

"When I was possessed, I could sense several demons inside of me. One for each sin I bore. They had to fight over it, you see. Because even before I was part demon, I was a shining example of all of the most fun sins. Pride, Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth, and of course Lust was my personal favorite. I used to eat, drink, and fuck anything I could get my hands on."

"Why'd you stop?" Akame asks.

"Because currently, I'm more Greed and Wrath oriented," I say. "I want money, and lots of it. And also, there's someone that's _going_ to feel my wrath."

"The guy with the axes?" Sheele asks.

"That's right," I nod. "He's a monster. He trained me to fight when I was young, taught me most of what I know about swordplay. However, he and my brother betrayed our village and my brother used this ring to burn my family alive. He tried to burn me as well, but I escaped, only to meet Carter, the guy with the axes. He had been my master. He was like a second father. So when I fought him, my hatred for him was my power. And I made mistakes. I lost the fight. And I died. Then I was possessed and later fused with it by accident by the only other survivor of my village, though they died not long after. I tracked down my brother first, and my demon side killed him. I claimed this ring from his corpse, and this sword, and then I fled. I can't defeat Carter. He's too strong."

"Why can you fight him when we can't, then if you admit we're better than you?" Leone asks.

"Because you all wield Imperial Arms as your only means of combat," I say. "In my village, Carter was a smith. He made weapons for a living, all forms of them. And he made weapons similar to the Imperial Arms, like this ring. You all believe it's an Imperial Arms, but it's actually more like a replica. A copy. Carter made it, so he knows it's weaknesses. And because he studied Imperial Arms so extensively, he knows the weaknesses of all of them. And he can spot and exploit them even in intense combat."

"Weaknesses?" Leone snorts. "Mine doesn't have a weakness."

"If your belt buckle is broken, your Imperial Arms is rendered useless," I say, everyone staring at me, then at her. "All of yours have weaknesses as well. You would all be killed by him, because after he breaks your Imperial Arms, you'd be left without a way to face him. But I fight against Imperial Arms wielders using only my family's sword. I've said before that it's just well-forged, and I mean it. It's forged from the same metal as Extase." I wave a hand at Sheele's scissors. "It's not as strong, and it can't shine like Extase, because there's no Danger Beast remains imbued into it. In fact, the entire sword is a single piece of metal with a grip added to the hilt to make it easier to wield."

"So it's unbreakable?" Najenda asks.

"No, but it would take a lot to break it," I say. "As long as I've been using it, except for cleaning blood off of it, I've never had to do anything for upkeep. It's never dulled, weakened, or rusted. That's not to say it can't, only that it would take a ridiculous amount of force. Probably trying to cut through Extase, or Incursio."

"So...this guy...he can break Imperial Arms, and that's why only you can fight him?" Najenda asks.

"Yes," I say. "For example. Let's take Esdeath's Imperial Arms. It controls ice and forms it from the water in the air. So by that logic, it would be weaker in a dry, hot environment, like a desert. Likewise, my ring would be weakened in cold or humid climates, while being much stronger in a desert. If I fought Esdeath in a desert, I might actually be capable of challenging her."

"You could kill her?" Najenda asks.

"No," I say. "But I could get Akame close enough to utilize Esdeath's second weakness. She _is_ her Imperial Arms. She can be killed in a single cut if Akame is the one to do it."

"That's good to know," Najenda says. "But for now, we need to focus on the mission at hand."

"I am," I say. "My spine has been crawling since we got here. When I heard about the Rakshasa demons, for a moment, I thought it was them. However, I was wrong. It's Carter. He's closing in for another round."

"Then we'll leave him to you," Najenda says. "Chelsea, you and Sheele will focus on Boris, as planned, but you'll do it during the anniversary festival. Leave the Rakshasa Demons and Jaegers to the rest of us."

We all nod before Su walks in, serving our food. I finish mine before even Akame, which is rather impressive, then leave, heading to my room and sitting on the bed, laying my sword across my lap and closing my eyes.

_"Hey, asshole, do me a favor and play telephone for me,"_ I say in my head, feeling the demon stir, then feeling a tingle in my head as he connects my mind to Carter's. _"Can you hear me Carter? I doubt you're far away, and I know I'll be dealing with you soon. However, I'm giving you a fair warning now. If you lay a single hand on one of the others, I'll allow my other half, the side you forced on me, to have free reign in tearing you apart. And you know how fond he is of causing pain."_

_"You're rather bold to be contacting me directly like this,"_ the demon's voice relays in my mind. _"Or, perhaps, you're simply desperate. Has the big bad demon assassin finally grown soft? Good. Then I'll enjoy torturing your soft spot. I'll torture and rape every single one of those pretty girls until they beg me for more. And then I'll kill them. The boys I'll just kill, that's not really my thing, but the girls." _the demon's voice laughs. _"Them I'll be taking _every_ pleasure with."_

The connection fades and I grit my teeth, hand closing tightly around the grip of my sword. I take several long breaths before setting it aside and closing my eyes, struggling to force myself to sleep.

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	11. Chapter 11

Revenge

I look around casually, eyes scanning everything around us. We're being watched, I can tell that much. But whoever it is, they're not coming near us. I'm not sure I'm too happy about that. Finally, we reach Boric's mansion and Chelsea slips inside. Then, I turn away from the door just in time to grab Sheele and leap to the side, Carter crashing down where we were. I swear. Not only is it really bad timing, but he also is attacking us in plain view of everyone.

"Hello again, Jason," Carter grins.

"Run," I growl, kicking a stone at Carter's head as I draw my sword and lunge.

Sheele turns to flee, but Carter avoids the stone and blocks my slash with his left axe, the unbroken one from our last fight. The moment he does, his right hand swings a splitting maul down at me from above. I swear, leaping to the side and avoiding the axe before turning and sprinting after Sheele. I glance back and Carter grins, waiting a few seconds before pursuing us. We can't escape. That much is a given. However, we _do _make it as far as a flat area just outside the village before he lands in front of us, grinning from ear to ear. I swallow hard, readying myself, Sheele doing the same beside me.

"Don't let him break your scissors," I warn. "Just let me hold his attention, you watch for an opening."

Sheele nods and I take a deep breath before charging, slashing at him rapidly. His axes spark repeatedly as he deflects my strikes, the two of us both gaining and losing ground rapidly, all but dancing back and forth across the area. I spin under a swipe from his axe, stepping around behind him and stab at him but he spins, blocking the blade with the flat of his axe, my sword's blade deflecting off to the side. He swipes down at me, but I spin and duck, slipping under the axe and stand, slashing upward, only for his blade to block mine in another shower of sparks. Then, he swings the other axe downward at me, forcing me back. He pursues me, and just like that, we're dancing around the battlefield again, both spinning, slashing, hacking, blocking, and dodging, sparks flying rapidly. Finally, he swipes downward at me with both and I step out of the way before slamming my sword down on the back of the blades before slashing back upward at him as Sheele slashes at him from behind. He grins, lunging forward and rams his shoulder into my chest, throwing me backward, Sheele's blade carving a scratch into the back of his shoulder. He spins, deflecting another slash and swipes upward at her, only for her to deflect it with the guard of her scissors. Then, she leaps backward and Carter spins, blocking my sword with the shaft of his left axe.

I push off, flipping forward and encase my foot in fire, kicking downward at him, but he dives out of the way, the fireball shooting off of my foot and blasting the ground just before I land, spinning and blocking Carter's left axe, staggering backward from the impact. He swipes again and again and I struggle to hold it back. Left, right, up, left, pivot, stab, flip, right, down, duck, slash, left, punch, stab, jump, slash. He push kicks at me, and I cross my arms to block it, being thrown as his foot collides with my arms. I bunce once before flipping and sending a blast of flames out of my hands to stop myself before catching my sword and charging again.

He meets my charge, our blades clashing time and again, sparks flying around us. I begin to lose track of the strikes, allowing my body to move on instinct as our weapons blur around and around in the air between us. At some point, I manage to scratch his cheek, then he nicks my shoulder. I spin around an axe and slash at his back and he traps it between the blade and shaft of his left axe, twisting and flipping my sword into the air before swiping at me. I step back, the splitting maul tearing a gash into my stomach before I leap forward, stepping off of his shoulder and jumping high into the air, catching my sword. As he's looking up at me, Sheele lunges, slashing from the left. He grins, his left axe blade knocking the blades downward, allowing him to flip over them and swipe downward at her. She pivots, knocking the blow away with her scissors' guards, flipping and kicking him aside. Then, she chases him. He bounces once and she slashes, only for his splitting maul to slam into her blades, flipping him over the blades so that he could land on his feet before stopping himself and deflecting another blow upward with his left axe. Sheele swings the scissors around behind herself, slashing from the other side and he flips over it again. However, just as he touches the ground, I reach him at a full sprint, jumping and planting both feet into the side of his ribcage, hurling him to the side.

He bounces and rolls to a stop, lying there a moment before pushing himself up, coughing a couple times before chuckling. "You've grown quite strong Jason. I'm impressed. I bet you want to know why I betrayed our village, right?"

"No," I say. "I don't give two shits about the village, or you, or why you do what you do. You betrayed the village. Okay. You killed me. That's fine. You're trying to kill me again. Great. You do what you do, and I'll do what I do. And right now, what I'm going to do is kill you."

Carter chuckles again. "How very simplistic of you. But you see, the reason I betrayed-"

I drop, slamming both palms into the ground, the ground where Carter had just been literally exploding, a dozen fireballs the size of his body erupting out and curving, falling at him, forcing him to run, the fireballs exploding in a trail after him. "I told you I don't care. Just shut the fuck up and die!"

I grab the sword I had stabbed into the ground and sprint forward, ducking under his initial swipe, slashing at him, his splitting maul deflecting it. I pass him and spin, slashing in a wide arc as I do, but he spins as well, his left axe deflecting it before he swipes downward at me. I turn out of the way, putting my left arm toward him and slash upward with my left arm, only for him to spin out of the way. His left axe blurs around at me but I swap hands on my sword and slash downward, my sword crashing into his axe hard, halting it before I drop to my knees, folding backward as Sheele slashes over me. Carter leaps backward, trying to block the blades with his left arm, only for them to smash through the axe's blade and shaft, splitting his chest open shallowly. Sheele lunges, blades opening and moving to split him in half. As I stand, he grins widely, stepping forward, slashing across his body with his splitting maul, the head of the axe sparking as it skids across the lower of the two scissor blades. I lunge forward, wrapping my left arm around Sheele just as the splitting maul meets the nexus between the scissor blades. There's an almighty crash before the upper blade jerks upward and the lower one downward. Then, Carter flips to the side, slipping between the two blades and shoving a dagger from his belt at Sheele, only for it to spark and skip off of my sword blade as I leap backward, getting Sheele away from him just as he lands and swipes with the axe, narrowly missing.

We land a ways away from him and I step in front of Sheele, who's staring at her broken scissors. I grit my teeth. I really did want to avoid her Imperial Arms being broken. However, now that they are, I'll have to deal with him myself. I'm about to charge when Sheele steps up beside me, holding the two halves of her scissors by the inside parts of the guard, wielding them like a pair of swords. I watch her for a moment before smirking and shaking my head.

"Alright then," I say. "Let's do this shall we?"

Sheele nods as Carter picks up the broken handle of his axe, which is broken to a point at the end. I grit my teeth, swallowing hard and shifting my posture t a more defensive one. He's excellent with axes, but he's even better with thin-bladed stabbing swords, like a rapier or an estoc, which is exactly what the handle has turned into. Sheele sees the shift in my posture and shifts herself as well. Then, I charge. Not exactly the best idea, but if I had let him make the first move, he'd have killed us both without any trouble. I duck aside from his first stab and slash at him, only for him to knock the blade aside with his splitting maul. He stabs downward at me but I flip over it, kicking downward at him. He spins around it, swinging his splitting maul around, only for one of Sheele's blades to flash under me, shattering the axe before she spun, her other blade flashing around at him, Carter deflecting it with his makeshift estoc. I land on my feet and step forward, slashing at him, but he twirls his blade around my sword and steps forward, stabbing at me. I spin away from it, releasing my sword as Carter turns to Sheele. He mule kicks me, throwing me backward before he advances on Sheele, swiping and stabbing rapidly, moving so fast that Sheele can barely keep up. She's not used to wielding two blades, and it begins to show quickly as she retreats from Carter, who doesn't give her even a moment to rest, his movements fluid and calculated, barely expending any of his own energy while quickly draining Sheele of her own.

Sheele dodges to the side from a stab and slashes at Carter, but he deflects the blade upward before stepping after her, jabbing at her and catching her in the forearm. She shouts in pain, that scissor blade spinning away from her, stabbing into the ground between me and Carter. He advances on her again, but now that Sheele's got only a single blade, she's able to fend him off slightly better. I grab Sheele's other blade as I pass it, and when I reach Carter, he spins, knocking Sheele's blade away before deflecting mine into the air and stabbing me shallowly in the gut. I stagger backward, Carter spinning again and deflecting Sheele's blade before ducking under mine. He stands, swiping at me and I dodge aside, the tip scratching me just below my left eye, before he turns on Sheele again, again pressing her backward. I chase him, and just as I reach him, Sheele manages to deflect his weapon out to the side. I don't miss a beat and slash upward, his arm spinning into the air before I spin, dropping onto a knee to give Sheele room, then slash as I finish my spin, Sheele slashing the other direction. Both blades splice through Carter like water, my blade splitting him at the waist and Sheele's about mid-chest. His legs crumple to the ground instantly, and his other two segments, along with his other arm, fall to the ground around us as I sigh, standing and handing Sheele the blade. I'm exhausted from using it, but it's drain wasn't as high as before.

"I'm sorry," I say. "I tried too keep him from breaking it."

"It's alright," Sheele says. "It's still an Imperial Arms. I'm not sure if I can still make the blades shine, but I can still wield it, now as a pair of blades that are each able to cut through any material."

I nod and look her over. She's covered in scratches and a couple of shallow puncture wounds, but she seems to have made it through okay. I turn, walking over to my own sword, picking it up and sheathing it just as Chelsea jogs over, staring at Sheele's broken weapon for a moment, then at Carter.

"Does it still function as an Imperial Arms?" Chelsea asks.

"More or less," Sheele nods. "I'm sure we can find a way to fix it later anyway. We just need a new pin."

Chelsea nods. "I assassinated Boric. Let's go regroup."

We nod and all of us head away from the city to an area away from the city where we were all told to head after the assassination. Lubbock, Akame, Leone, and Najenda all beat us there, but Mine and Tatsumi take about another ten minutes to show up, Mine banged up and covered in dust.

"What happened to you?" I ask.

"Seryu and the last Rakshasa Demon," Tatsumi says. "You?"

"Carter," I say. "We killed him, but he broke Sheele's Imperial Arms in half."

Sheele draws the blades to show them. "They still work. They're just separate now."

Najenda nods. "It's good that you defeated him. You did well. We should go. Esdeath may come looking for us."

We all agree and follow her away from the city quickly.

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	12. Chapter 12

Breaking

I duck as Sheele slashes at me, slipping under it and slashing upward at her, her other blade blocking it. In the few days we've been training, she's gotten good fighting with her blades separate. Terrifyingly good, actually. She's almost better now than she was with a single weapon.

I flip into the air over her, flipping and kicking down at her, only for her to step out of the way, slashing at me. Her blade crashes into mine and I sail backward, crashing into a tree hard, grunting and sliding to the ground, groaning as my head tries to remember which way is up. After a couple of seconds, I slowly push myself up, leaning heavily on my sword and shake my head, struggling to steady myself. Sheele sighs, sliding her blades into the two sheathes on her back, one of which I made when we got back to our hideout, then walks over to me, taking an arm over her shoulders and helping me back toward the castle. I sigh, sheathing my own sword as we go. By the time we reach the door, I can walk on my own again, so I pull the door open, allowing her through first before following. Everyone else is away scouting and meeting up with members of the Rebellion, leaving us to guard the hideout while Sheele trains to wield her weapon properly all over again. As such, we have the entire castle to ourselves.

"So, what do you want to do now?" Sheele asks.

"I'm not sure," I say. "I need to start dinner in a bit. I suppose I could give it a few hours and just make something quick."

Sheele smiles and slips her hand into mine. I roll my eyes, pulling it away.

"Cut that out," I sigh. "What do _you_ want to do?"

"I don't know," Sheele says. "Want to go swimming?"

I sigh. I know her plan. And I know what she really wants. She wants to tease me with her bikini. She wants me to slip up and lose control, like I did when we had sex. I sigh again, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"You really are a pain in the neck," I sigh. "Fuck it. Why not? Let's go swimming."

She cheers and runs off, then a few minutes later, runs out into the room where we had Susanoo set up a pool, now dressed in a violet bikini that's quite a bit too small for her. I've already changed into a pair of swimming trunks and am in the pool when she enters, so the water hides the fact that I get worked up instantly when I see it. I roll my eyes and look away as she slips into the pool. She makes her way over, leaning against me, and wrapping her arms around my neck.

"Why are you looking away?" she asks. "It's not like you haven't seen it before."

"Maybe I was just looking around," I counter.

"Mhm, sure," she says. "So, what do you want to do while we're here?"

"Well, I know what you want to do," I say, turning my face back to hers and leaning close enough for my lips to just barely brush hers as I speak. "You just wanted to be able to tease me with that bikini and try to get laid again, right?"

"And if I did?" Sheele asks.

"Then you're going to be disappointed," I say, slipping out of her reach and backstroking away. "I commend you for having tried so hard for so long, but you're not going to beat me at this game, Sheele." I begin to float on my back.

"And what game is that?" she asks, circling me slowly.

"You're not going to make me fall for you," I say. "It's impossible for me to fall for you. You're just wasting your energy."

"I don't know," Sheele says. "I think it's working."

"It's not," I say.

I float for a few more minutes before glancing at Sheele, seeing her staring into the water silently. I swallow and set my feet down, splashing her. She coughs and sputters, wiping the water out of her eyes and wiping her wet hair back.

"What was that for?" she asks.

"What?" I ask. "Can't take a hit?"

Her eyes widened before she grins and begins to send waves of water at me rapidly as I send mine right back. Sheele begins to laugh as she tries to attack me, her attacks growing less effective as she loses focus. However, after a few minutes, a laugh forces its way out of my throat and Sheele's eyes all but shine.

"You laughed!" she beams.

"You're imagining things," I say.

"No I'm not!" she grins. "You laughed! You're enjoying yourself!"

"Not even close," I say. "You're not fun. You're just an annoyance that attached itself to me like a leech. I've never enjoyed our time together."

"Really?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. "So you didn't enjoy having sex either?"

"That's different," I say. "That was just fucking. It didn't mean anything, it probably won't happen again, and just so you know, it wasn't even that good."

Sheele's eyes widen slightly but she shakes her head, still grinning.

"Sure," she says.

"Honestly, I think I might fuck Leone next," I say. "I just have to get her drunk, which isn't hard, then it's basically a matter of daring her to, since she's too stubborn to back down from anything when drunk. And she has an amazing set of tits. Might be a little loose, if I had to guess but-"

A wall of water hits my face and I cough, spitting it back out and wiping my face before looking around, seeing Sheele storming back into the castle. I stare after her, feeling my chest burn. Maybe I went a little far. Not that I care, but I almost feel a little bad seeing Sheele upset. Almost. If I cared. Which I don't.

I sigh heavily, resting my face in my hand. "Dammit Sheele. Why couldn't you just give up while you had the chance. I had one rule. Just the one. Fuck."

I climb out of the pool and use my ring to dry myself and my shorts before walking inside, following the wet footprints through the building. After a few minutes, I reach Sheele's room and stop, hearing her sobbing inside. I grit my teeth, feeling my chest burn again, worse this time, then push the door open, walking into the room and stop, watching Sheele as she lays on the bed, face buried in her pillow.

"What do you want?" Sheele demands finally. "Did you come to talk about fucking other girls again? Or maybe you're going to call me an outsider piece of trash like everyone else used to?"

"I would never call you that," I say, surprised by how weak I sound.

"Why not?" Sheele demands. "It's not like you care! You don't care about anything! You've said so how many times? I don't know why I ever thought anything different. You could never understand how I feel. You could never understand what it's like to love someone and not be able to be with them!"

"I understand more than you could possibly imagine," I say, voice threatening to break.

Sheele rolls over and stares at me.

"My whole life, I was treated like filth," I say. "I told you that my brother and Carter betrayed my village, but what I didn't tell you was that my village earned it. My family treated me like trash, I was sickly and weak as a child, so I was routinely beaten by the other kids in the village. My brother always defended me, but that just led him to hate me and see me as a hinderance. Even when I wasn't alone, I was always alone. After I became part demon, it just got worse. I made a friend once. And then the demon killed him. I adopted a dog and the demon sacrificed it to the devil. I met someone that I cared about once, and the demon raped her to death. I don't know if I ever explained how it works using him, but I can see and feel everything he does, but I can't stop it, at least not without enough effort that I pass out for days. After her, I understood that I was a monster. I was already a mercenary that would do anything for enough money, literally, and I was a demon on top of that. So I gave up. I locked my emotions away, I forced myself to believe I didn't care about anyone or anything besides getting money and getting revenge on Carter for turning me into this.

"And then I met this beautiful girl who saw what I was, who saw the other side of me, and yet she fell in love with me anyway. She treated me like a person, for the first time in my life, and even though she _was_ afraid of what I was, she still made it a point to spend as much time as she could with me, making sure I didn't feel alone. But I couldn't fall for her. I couldn't let her force me to care about anything. If I did, the demon would take it from me. So I tried to push her away, and I fought to not care. To stay cold. But I couldn't. Try as I might, she forced her way past the walls I set up and then began to tear them down. She forced me to care. And then one night, she broke my will, and I slipped up. I let myself love her for one night. When I woke up, I realized I had made a mistake, and I forced myself to believe it hadn't mean anything again, but deep down I knew that I couldn't pretend any longer. And it scared me. So I tried to push her away again. And she just worked harder to break down my walls, and just made me care more and more. She made me fall more and more in love with her, and care more and more about the others. Our friends." I stop, Sheele staring at me with a smile and tears running down her face. "I'm sorry I hurt you, Sheele. I never wanted to hurt you. I just couldn't admit that I love you, because I don't want t lose you."

Sheele stands, walking over to me and cupping my face, gently pulling me into a kiss, sighing as I kiss her back. "You will never lose me. I will always be here for you. Even if you can never show that you care."

I smile and nod, kissing her again. After a few minutes, I pull back, resting my forehead against hers. "I think maybe I can get away with caring tonight."

Sheele doesn't miss a beat, instantly capturing my lips in a searing kiss that makes it impossible for me to catch my breath. I kiss her back just as passionately, lifting her by the ass and carrying her to the bed, laying her down on it and positioning myself over her, pressing against her, earning a moan as she begins to rock against me. I press harder into her, my hands moving up to knead and grope her breasts, quickly pulling her bikini up out of the way and allowing access to toy with her breasts. Sheele moans loudly, breaking the kiss and tilting her head back as I attach my lips to her neck, working all of the sensitive spots I found last time. As I do, my hand slides down her stomach and slips into her bikini bottoms, begging to run my fingers through her already soaking wet slit, circling her clit quickly. She moans loudly as I do, then cries out as I push two fingers into her, beginning to thrust them quickly.

Her hips rock and buck against my hand and I watch her expression as I do, smiling. I feel off, somehow. I find myself wanting to kiss her, just for the sake of kissing her. So I do. She moans, kissing me back instantly, hands tangling into my hair. After a few more minutes, she pulls back suddenly, crying out as her hips jerk suddenly, insides spasming around my fingers. Her body jerks and bucks as she struggles to catch her breath. I smile, curling my fingers upward, almost instantly finding the spot I'm looking for. A few thrusts later, Sheele gasps harshly before screaming, her juices spraying out of her. I keep her orbiting cloud nine for almost a full minute before slowly easing her back down from her orgasm.

"Oh my God," Sheele pants. "That was..."

"Yeah," I smile, kissing her. "I know."

She smiles as well before rolling us over and pulling her bikini the rest of the way off, followed by my swimming trunks. "I'm sorry. I can't wait any longer."

"I was about to say the same thing," I smile.

She nods, smiling, and lines herself up before beginning to lower herself onto my cock. I groan, feeling her tunnel sliding down over me, squeezing me so tightly that it was difficult for her to get me inside of her, but at the same time it felt like her body is trying to pull me in deeper. After a few more seconds, she bottoms out, moaning as I press against her cervix.

"I missed feeling you," she smiles down at me.

"So did I," I say, lacing our fingers together. "Do you know how hard it is to work while my every though is of you?"

"Of course I do," she says. "That's how it's been since you saved me."

I smile and sit up, kissing her, out hands staying joined. After a moment, she pulls away, gently pushing me back down before beginning to move, moaning softly and moving slowly. _Very_ slowly. I groan, struggling not to make her move faster. After a moment, I look up at her, seeing her grinning knowingly down at me.

"You bitch," I groan. "I thought you couldn't wait any longer."

"I'm content like this," Sheele says. "I enjoy feeling you inside of me. Plus I already finished, so I'm fine."

I roll my eyes and sit up, kissing her before flipping, grabbing her hands and pinning them above her head, glaring down at her. "Remind me why I love you?"

Sheele smiles, reaching up and kissing me. I kiss her back, beginning to pull out and thrust back in, still keeping myself restrained, but moving at a decent pace. Sheele moans into the kiss, rocking her hips up to meet my thrusts. I move one hand down, beginning to rub her clit quickly and she moans again, her arms wrapping around under my own, her hands clutching at my shoulders. I speed up, quickly beginning to bury myself in her tunnel as fast and hard as I can. Sheele pulls back from the kiss, beginning to moan and cry out in pleasure with every couple of thrusts. After a few more minutes, I feel her insides beginning to quiver around me and her moans and cries begin to grow more desperate and more broken. I smile, kissing her just as she bucks, insides clamping down and her nails suddenly biting into my back. She screams into my mouth and begins to spasm, insides working to milk me as I continue thrusting into her and rubbing her clit, extending her orgasm. Finally, she starts to come down from her orgasm, but thanks to being hypersensitive now, everything I do makes her cry out in pleasure. Unfortunately, I'm reaching the end of my rope.

"Fuck Sheele!" I groan as she bits into my shoulder to try and muffle herself, even though we have the castle to ourselves. "Shit. I'm close."

"M...Me too! " Sheele forces out.

I start to pull out, but Sheele seems to sense my intentions because she instantly flips us, beginning to bounce on my cock rapidly. I groan, thrusting up into her in time with her drops, and she moans appreciatively. Then, finally, both of us snap, my member ramming itself up into her at the same time as her body jerked and spasmed, her insides milking my cock as it erupted into her, quickly filling her to overflowing with semen. After the first couple shots, she begins to bunce slightly in jerky, uneven movements, trying to work every drop out of me. it works quickly, and after a few more seconds, both of our climaxes finally begin to subside. She collapses on top of me, panting, and I groan, wrapping my arms around her.

"You shouldn't let me do that," I say. "You might get pregnant."

"I hope so," Sheele says, my body going rigid.

"What?" I ask.

"I want to have your child," Sheele says. "I want to start a family with you."

I stare at her for several seconds before kissing her, trying to pour all of my love into it. She smiles, returning the kiss in kind, and after a few moments, it begins to calm. We lay there for a long time, though I'm not sure exactly how long, trading slow, languid kisses, enjoying being able to hold each other. Finally, after a while longer, I sigh heavily.

"Just a little longer," Sheele says.

"I want to," I say. "But I'm hungry, and the others might be back tonight, if not tomorrow."

Sheele sighs. "Alright. Let's go get some food."

I smile and kiss her before standing and pulling on my shorts, Sheele pulling on her bikini, not feeling like putting the dress she always wears on. Then, we head to the kitchen so I can finally start dinner.

* * *

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	13. Chapter 13

Joining The Hunt

I smirk. We've got a new mission. Exterminate a new group in the capital known as Wild Hunt. They were formed to find us, but instead of searching, they've gone around slaughtering dozens of people in the capital to draw us out. It's so bad that we were directly ordered by the Revolutionary Army to wipe them out. And this time, the job's going to be easy. Partially because it's all of us against three Wild Hunt members, partially because they're busy fighting Kurome and Run, a guy wearing a white robe and pants with a white feather charm in his blonde hair and an Imperial Arms in the form of a pair of floating disks that generate white feathered wings, the feathers also able to be used as projectiles.

"Mine, the first shot's yours," I say. "Aim for the girl with the microphone."

Mine nods, sighting in. However, just before she squeezes her shot off, Run manages to use his wings to smash a bead thrown by a fat clown member of Wild Hunt back at him, causing him to burst into flames, burning away to nothing in an instant. Then, Mine squeezes off a shot. The shot punches through the center of the girl's chest just as she's about to attack Kurome and Run, both of whom are wounded from the clown's earlier attacks. Then, Tatsumi moves to attack a Wild Hunt member with a cutlass Imperial Arms as I leap out f the trees, landing over Run, who's lying on the ground again, coated in his own blood.

"Die Night Raid!" Kurome shouts, attacking me from behind, only for me to smash her sword into the air with my own, then catching it and hurling it away.

"Stay out of this Kurome," I say. "I'll deal with you in a moment."

"I won't let you hurt him!" Kurome shrieks, lunging, but Sheele lands in front of her, kicking her and sending her flying.

"Are you sure about this?" Sheele asks.

"No," I say. "But if I can pull this off, they'll owe us, and maybe Akame won't have to kill her sister."

"What are...you doing?" Run asks.

"Don't move," I say, taking a long breath. "Get out here and save them."

My rage boils over instantly, but Sheele slips her hand into mine and the rage calms slightly, becoming controllable, even as I shift. The demon glares at Sheele, but when he tries to force my body to kill Sheele, it fails to respond. He grumbles irritably and catches Kurome's sword as she slashes from the side. The blade cuts deeply into my palm, but the demon doesn't mind. He slams Kurome to the ground before tossing the sword, my hand healing. Then, he rests his free hand on Run's forehead, light shining from under his hand for a moment before he lifted his hand, Run's wounds beginning to mend themselves. Run's eyes widen as the demon reaches over and picks up Kurome by the face. However, rather than crush her like he wants, light shines from his hand again and he sets her on her feet before releasing her and allowing me to retake control, my body shifting back.

"What...are you?" Run asks.

"A monster," I say. "Just a monster with a very useful ability, when I can control it. Kurome, how do you feel?"

"I...I'm..." she stares at her hands, then up at Akame before tears begin to fall down her cheeks. "Sister!"

Akame's eyes widen and Kurome runs to her unarmed, hugging her and sobbing.

"What...what did you do to her?" Run asks.

"The drugs the capital forced her to take had damaged the parts of her brain controlling morality and the perception of reality," I say. "I healed those parts of the brain, as well as her body's addiction to the drug. So long as she never takes them again, she'll be sane and normal."

"I...thank you!" Run says, bowing. "Thank you for saving us both."

"Don't thank me," I say. "Because now I have to ask you to so something in return."

"We can't leave the capital," Run says.

"I figured," I say. "I don't need you to do that. I need you to turn a blind eye to us while we exterminate Wild Hunt."

"That we can do," Run nods, standing. "Kurome, we have to get back."

Kurome nods, hugging Akame one last time before walking over to him, allowing him to pick her up as he extends his wings. Then, he takes off, Kurome grabbing her sword as she passes it.

"Thank you for saving her," Akame says. "But I still have to kill her."

"No, you don't," I say. "You can ask her to join us now. She'll do anything for her big sister."

Akame stares after her before smiling, nodding. "You're right."

"But not yet," I say. "We need to take down Wild Hunt first. I can go and find the rest right now. I can probably get the leader. Maybe one of the others."

"No," Najenda says. "We'll head back to the hideout for now. We'll wait for Wild Hunt to come out of the palace first, then strike then."

I nod and we all head home. Over the next week, Tatsumi, Lubbock, and I all spy on the capital, but Wild Hunt doesn't leave the palace once. I don't like it.

"They've got to be up to something," I say as I'm laying in bed one night, Sheele lying with her chin on my chest, one of my arms under her, stroking up and down her bare back as my other is under my head.

"Maybe they're just hiding," Sheele says. "They did lose three members in one night. Almost half their members."

"No," I say. "They're all psychopaths and serial killers. None of them has it in them to be afraid." I look down at her and she smiles, reaching up and kissing me. "I'm glad I decided to let you be an easy recurring fuck."

"So am I," Sheele smiles. "Now if only I could get you to care."

"Good luck with that," I say, reaching down and kissing her again.

Just as I do, the door bursts open and Leone cheers as I sigh, rolling my eyes.

"I knew it!" Leone says.

"Do you mind?" I ask. "I'm trying to get laid."

"Yu're dating!" Leone says.

"No, we're fucking," I say. "I have needs, she has a pussy. Simple as that."

"Mhm, sure," Leone grins. "I have a pussy too. You haven't even tried for mine."

"That's because Sheele's easy," I say.

"Please leave Leone," Sheele says, giving Leone a slightly irritated look. "We're busy. Pester him later."

Leone raises her hands in surrender and leaves. I roll my eyes as Sheele lays back down, smiling.

"Now, where were we?" I grin, capturing her lips again.

* * *

I gasp as I sit bolt upright. Lubbock and Tatsumi are in trouble. I'm not sure how I know, but I know.

"What's wrong?" Sheele asks.

"We need to go, now!" I say, jumping out of bed and grabbing a set of clothes.

I go with a black shirt with three-quarter sleeves, a pair of loose jeans, and my black shoes. Just as I finish dressing myself, Sheele pulls her two sheathes onto her back, nodding. Then, I grab her and jump out the window, activating my ring's true power. Five minutes later, I drop to the ground of one f the palace courtyards, blasting the ground with my ring and kicking up a massive explosion of dust and smoke, blocking everyone's sight as I deactivate my ring, then catch Sheele. Instantly, we both take off. I find the first enemy, one of the four Rakshasa Demons. she's got short black hair, a white robe, and a black pad like half a bra over the outside of her robe on her left breast, however, before she can even react, I nearly split her in half with my sword. two steps later, a young girl with blonde hair and a blue dress leaps out of the smoke at me, mouth open wide and exposing a set of pointed fangs. However, before she can bite me, I shove a fireball into her mouth, the fireball blowing her head into paste. It also clears the dust around me, however, and I hear a footstep behind me and spin, blocking a katana with my sword, skidding backward.

"It seems I get to give you a decent meal after all, Kousetsu," the man says, speaking to his sword, which doesn't seem to be an Imperial Arms.

"Bring it tough guy," I say.

We both charge, our swords clashing rapidly. Imperial Arms or not, the guy's good. However, I'm not in the mood to play fair, or to have an extended fight. I knock his sword aside and coat my hand in flame, moving to punch him, only for Tatsumi to crash into him from the side, lightning flying over Tatsumi's body. He crashes to the ground and I spin, shifting just as my flame-coated fist explodes against the fist of the Capital's top general, Budo. The fireball explodes and the demon leaps away, landing away from the others just as Sheele crashes to the ground beside me, her blades stabbing into the ground on either side of her. She's covered in bruises, but she stands, picking up her blades as the remaining enemies walk toward us. My heart sinks as the demon looks around at them. Budo. Esdeath. A tan guy with an "X" shaped scar over his face and blood on his knuckles from beating Sheele bloody, and the guy with the katana.

"We can't win," I snarl as I shift back. "We have to leave."

"Can we even escape with Esdeath here?" Sheele asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "Leave that to me."

I turn, kneeling beside Lubbock, who's back is split open, and then turn back to the front. I pass Lubbock to Sheele and sheath my sword, lighting my hands on fire.

"Oh, you should be interesting to fight," Esdeath says. "Show me a good time."

"I'll show you something," I say, kneeling and placing my hands on the ground. "Eruption."

The ground under the entirety of the courtyard is instantly ripped asunder as an explosion goes off below it, blasting a huge portion of the palace into rubble, which began to rain back down as the demon sprints away with Sheele on his back and Lubbock in his arms. He's faster than a human, so within a matter of minutes we've escaped. However, he doesn't stop running until we reach the hideout. I shift back and slow to a stop, Sheele dropping to the ground and taking Lubbock just before I collapse, rage spiking and falling inside of me as the demon fights to escape.

"It's...my...body!" I snarl, fighting him back. "Shut the fuck up!"

Sheele kneels, cupping my face and kissing me, and just like that, it's over. The demon's back under control, and Sheele pulls back, smiling.

"Thank you," I say, pushing myself up and picking up Lubbock, hurrying inside.

Sheele sprints to get the others and I lay Lubbock on the dining rom table, and a matter of seconds later, the others all arrive, rushing over to stand at Lubbock's side, Najenda taking his hand, worry all over her face.

"I can stitch up the wound, but he will be incapable of going anywhere for a very long time," Susanoo says. "Also, his spine was nicked by the sword. He may be paralyzed."

"Do what you can for him," Najenda says.

"They have Tatsumi," I say.

She glances up at me before returning her gaze to Lubbock.

"They'll execute him," I say.

Mine's eyes widen and begin to water, and Akame covers her mouth, eyes also widening, but not as much. Still Najenda says nothing.

"Fine," I say. "If you won't give the order, I will. No one here is going to let any more of our friends die. With or without your order, we're going."

"This is an emergency mission," Najenda says, voice wavering as she grips Lubbock's hand tightly in both of hers. "Stop the execution. Save Tatsumi and bring him home. If you can locate Incursio, bring it with you, but that is a secondary objective. Tatsumi is the priority."

We all nod and turn, leaving the room quickly.

* * *

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	14. Chapter 14

Rescue

"This is an emergency mission," Najenda says, voice wavering as she grips Lubbock's hand tightly in both of hers. "Stop the execution. Save Tatsumi and bring him home. If you can locate Incursio, bring it with you, but that is a secondary objective. Tatsumi is the priority."

We all nod and turn, leaving the room quickly. We get outside in a matter of seconds, and all take off toward the capital. As we travel, I explain my plan to the others. It's desperate. Truly. But it's also our best chance. And it relies almost exclusively on myself and Mine. We reach the capital and Mine makes a beeline for the coliseum where Tatsumi is being held. We're late, and the execution should be starting any minute. As Mine moves to interrupt, Sheele and the others all spread out around the arena. Then, we all move in. When I arrive, it's in time to land in front of Mine, sending out a wave of flames and blocking a wall of ice spikes that Esdeath was sending at her.

"Very impressive," Esdeath grins. "I knew you would be entertaining."

"You don't know the half of it," I snarl, drawing my sword as ice rapidly began to form in the air around me, flames rolling off of me.

Then, she and I are off, both streaking forward and beginning to clash rapidly in a series of slashes, stabs, and strikes with our respective elements. Esdeath is every bit the monster I had heard. Even as I'm pressing her as hard as I can with my sword, she can still rain ice spikes at me. Fortunately, I can block them with flames at the same time as I fight her. She flips away suddenly as a meteor of ice appears over me, only for me to punch upward, a fireball the size of my body shooting up and exploding into it. Esdeath narrows her eyes and charges again, stabbing at me with her rapier, only for me to deflect it and slash upward at her, flames rolling off of my blade. She leaps backward, ice forming over her entire front to block the strike and the flames explode against it, shattering it and hurling her backward, but she escapes the blade itself, along with most of the damage, and flips, landing on her feet and glaring at me. She doesn't look happy. Suddenly, she grins and I suddenly can't move. I can still register what's happening, but I can't move. I realize what's happened as she walks calmly toward me. She's frozen time.

"You're good," she says. "But with this, it's checkmate."

She stops in front of me, raising her sword, but in the time it takes for her to slash, I shift, the demon knocking her sword away with my own and drilling a flaming punch into her gut. The explosion sends her flying, time resuming as the demon hurls my sword into the air, beginning to punch rapidly, raining fireballs at her in a massive cloud. However, Esdeath flips, landing on her hands and feet, snarling in rage as ice explodes out of the ground in massive chunks and spikes, meeting my fireballs in a massive explosion. Then, she dives to the side as a massive blast of energy flashes past her, blasting a massive section of the wall. I glance to the side as I shift back to normal, seeing that Tatsumi's armor has evolved. It's horns are now longer, and its armor plating looks like bones. I grin. It looks pretty good.

"Watch out!" Sheele shouts.

I drop into a low squat as Esdeath's sword flashes over me before jumping over an ice spike that erupted out of the ground. Then, I catch my sword and slash, an arc of flame as wide as my body shooting off of my blade and exploding on the ground, narrowly missing Esdeath. I land on my feet just as a lightning bolt explodes into the ground in front of me, forcing me to leap away. As I land on my feet, three ice spikes fall toward me, only for one of Sheele's blades to block them as it spins past. I catch the handle in time to use the blade to block Esdeath's sword. I slash at her and she flips over the blade, landing a ways away as I toss Sheele's blade back to her. Just then, lightning begins to explode into the ground rapidly, dozens of bolts at a time, all blasting the ground completely at random. I dodge and bolt around the blasts, barely avoiding them. However, as it fades, Budo is floating in the air, glaring down at us.

"This is ridiculous," I growl. "Just how strong is this fucker?"

"He's roughly on level with Esdeath," Akame says, all of us grouped together now.

"He's a pain in the ass," I growl.

Just then, a massive dragon appeared in the sky over the arena. It roars, tail slamming into Budo and blasting him into the ground beside Esdeath.

"It's about goddamn time!" I shout as the dragon begins to spiral down toward the ground.

Just as it lands and Leone and Akame jump on, a dozen massive spikes of ice fly at it, only for me to block it with a wall of flames.

"You're going nowhere!" Esdeath snarls.

However, before she or Budo can do anything else, Tatsumi appears in front of them, his fists slamming into both of them, his right smashing through a layer of ice Esdeath tried to defend herself with and his left shattering the armor on Budo's abdomen. Both shot backward, exploding into the wall before the rest of us scrambled onto the dragon and it took off, speeding away from the arena and away from the capital.

"You were late Chelsea!" I shout, the dragon looking back at me before huffing and turning back to the front. "But thank you for getting us out of there."

Just then, Tatsumi's armor disperses in a cloud of smoke and he coughs up blood, falling forward, only for Mine and Akame to catch him.

"Tatsumi!" Mine shouts.

"It's poison!" Akame says.

"Let me see," Chelsea says, having the most medical treatment beside Najenda. "He'll be okay. Incursio neutralized most of the poison, but he's weak from the evolution. He just needs to rest."

Mine nods and sighed in relief. However, just as she does, the hair all over my body stands on end suddenly and I spin, punching upward and blocking a lightning bolt with a fireball. The resulting explosion sends us crashing to the ground anyway, and Chelsea's transformation breaks, but we're at least alive. I look around. Chelsea's out cold from the landing, Akame and Leone are both in bad shape from their fight with Budo, and Tatsumi's out cold. Mine stands, walking to the front and aiming up at Budo, except Pumpkin's cracked and falling apart.

"Didn't you hear us before?" Budo demands. "You're going nowhere!"

A massive sphere of black lightning began to form in front of his fist.

"All that awaits assassins is death!" Budo shouts.

However, before he can fire, Sheele reaches him, slashing across the front with one of her blades while kicking his arm upward, at the same time, I appear behind him as my demon form, slashing with Sheele's other blade, our blades sparking against each other as they split him in half. Then, I catch Sheele and land heavily in front of Mine, setting Sheele on her feet before shifting back and sighing.

"Mine, you're a goddamn idiot for trying that," I say, tossing her the gun I had confiscated on the way up, pieces of it falling off as she catches it. "You'd have killed yourself."

"Thank you," Mine says. "I just...wanted to protect Tatsumi."

"I know," I say. "Now let's get the fuck out of here before Esdeath finds us."

The others nod and I pick up Tatsumi, Leone picking up Chelsea, as we continue toward the hideout. As we reach it, I carry Tatsumi to his room, setting him on his bed before sighing. I've been too obvious recently. I need to rein myself back in before the others start to catch on. Leone's bad enough.

"Uh, Jason?" Mine says nervously.

"I can't heal him, Mine," I say. "I've already used my other side too much. I'm sorry. It's too risky."

"I see," Mine says, staring at Tatsumi worriedly.

I sigh. "You and Akame. I swear."

"What?" Mine asks.

"You're both in love with Tatsumi, and yet neither of you has the guts to tell him," I say. "He'd probably fall for whichever of you asks him out first. He doesn't seem like he has a lot of experience with women. To be honest, I think I'd prefer to see him with Akame. But if it was you, I'd do my best to keep you two from having to say goodbye."

"What are you saying?" Mine asks.

"I'm saying you should tell him how you feel, both of you," I look over Mine's shoulder where Akame's standing in the doorway. "Let him choose, fight over him, share him. I don't really care." I walk toward the door as I speak. But however you go about dealing with your obvious feelings for him..." I stop, looking back at them both, Akame now standing at Mine's side. "I'll make sure that the three of you survive this war so that you can be together, regardless of who's with who."

Then, I turn, walking out of the room, heading to Lubbock's room, finding Najenda asleep beside Lubbock's bed, her head laying on the bed beside his own, her hands clasping his and Susanoo sitting beside her. He nods to me and I return the gesture before heading to my bedroom, finding Sheele waiting.

"Have I ever mentioned that I hate caring?" I ask, rolling my right shoulder in its socket before dropping onto the bed on my stomach. "I'm always so tired and sore after I fight someone strong because I care."

Sheele smiles and begins to massage my muscles. "That's good. It gives me a reason to massage you."

I groan. "You _are_ exceptionally good with your hands."

"You keep caring, and I'll keep massaging," Sheele says.

I smile, looking up at her out of the corner of my eye before allowing her massage to put me to sleep.

* * *

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	15. Chapter 15

Resting

I lean back against the wall of the hideout, sighing heavily. Sheele leans into my side, arms wrapped around me and head tucked under my chin. The others have all stayed blessedly quiet about our near-constant displays of affection, and I'm eternally grateful for it. The Demon inside of me has been unusually quiet. Another thing I'm grateful for.

"It won't be this peaceful for long," Sheele says.

"I know," I sigh. "But I intend to enjoy it while it lasts. And I'm not the only one."

I glance out away from the hideout to where Mine and Tatsumi are sitting together, hand-in-hand and Mine leaning on his shoulder like the children they really should be allowed to be. It's easy to forget how young everyone in Night Raid is, aside from Najenda, due to our jobs.

"They're cute together," Sheele says. "I bet Akame's broken up about it, though, huh?"

"Probably," I nod, as Mine and Tatsumi kiss. "Come on. Let's head inside. There are other things we could be doing than watching Mine and Tatsumi kiss."

"Things like this?" Sheele asks, grinning as she turns into me and captures my lips, her tongue slipping into my mouth briefly before retreating.

"That's a good start," I smirk.

Sheele smiles and he head inside, making our way toward my room, which has honestly become closer to _our_ room recently. As we're passing the common room, however, we pause, listening.

"This base...it feels so big and empty," Akame's saying, voice wavering as though she's about to cry. "I've never really been able...to get used to feeling like this. Alone."

I carefully peek inside, seeing Leone holding Akame to her chest, her face tucked into Akame's hair.

"If I were a man, I would wrap my arms around you and hold you," Leone says, giving Akame a smile that's so full of love and adoration that it borders on intimate as Akame stares at her, wide-eyed. "But at the very least, I can be together with you like this."

"No, I like you better this way," Akame smiles, tucking her face into Leone. "You're so warm."

"I swear to you, Akame, that for as long as I draw breath, you will never be alone," Leone vows. "I'll always be by your side." She leans down and presses a kiss into the top of Akame's head, smiling. "I'm not Tatsumi, but I promise to try to make you smile like he did, someday."

Akame smiles up at her, eyes watering. "You already do."

Leone returns the smile, but instead of kissing like I have a feeling they might, they instead simply return to holding each other. I roll my eyes and Sheele and I continue, Sheele giving me a questioning look.

"No, they just hugged," I sigh. "No sexy lesbian make out session, unfortunately."

Sheele snorts. "Darn. I'll have to work harder to make up for it."

I'm about to laugh, only to catch myself as we reach Lubbock's room and both freeze, hearing Najenda crying. We both carefully peak inside and see that Lubbock's awake, holding Najenda as she sobs happily into his chest. I smile and slip past the room, Sheele and I finally reaching our room. Within minutes, Leone shouts for us to quiet down, so I make it a point to make Sheele be louder, just to annoy her.

* * *

I sigh as I watch Akame. She's watching Tatsumi jealously, even while standing in Leone's arms, and with one hand reaching back behind her to rest on the back of Leone's head. I truly can't figure her out. She clearly loves Tatsumi, and yet she's, apparently, allowing Leone to think she's chosen to be in a relationship with Leone.

"So, do you want me to distract Mine today so you can snag Tatsumi?" Leone asks.

"You're sure you don't mind sharing?" Akame asks.

"The way I see it, if you steal him, that gives me a free pass to share him with you as much as sharing you with him," Leone smiles. "Right?"

Akame smiles, shaking her head, then twists around, kissing Leone. "I only need you to keep her busy for an hour."

Leone grins and nods. "Consider the mission already accepted."

With that, Leone steals another quick kiss before darting off to lure Mine away from Tatsumi. I raise an eyebrow, glancing at Sheele, who nods. We have nothing better to do than watch how it plays out. Najenda is currently spending all day with Lubbock, her now official boyfriend, and Chelsea is out on a scouting mission still. So, we're out of things to do, unless I want to be beaten black and blue by Sheele again, which I don't.

We follow Akame at a distance, careful not to be discovered, and prepare ourselves to eavesdrop on her and Tatsumi. Akame walks over to him, asking him on a walk. When he agrees, they head out into the woods, passing through them quickly before reaching a clearing and stopping. The clearing is a great choice, with rays of sunlight breaking through the trees and flowers scattered around it. It's beautiful.

"This place is amazing!" Tatsumi breathes, taking in the field as Akame turns to face him.

He turns to give her a questioning look, but it changes into surprise as she pulls him into a kiss. For a moment, he's too stunned to react. Then he's too stunned to stop himself as he returns the kiss. Then, finally, he pulls away, face already betraying his conflicted feelings. "What are-"

"I love you, Tatsumi," Akame interrupts. "I've been in love with you for a while. I'm not sure exactly when I fell for you, but I'm not sure it matters."

"I...I never thought you, of all people, would be interested in me," Tatsumi says, smiling slightly, though his eyes still look conflicted. "But...I'm with Mine, now."

"I know," Akame says. "And I don't want to hurt her by taking you away from her. I know how much that would hurt her."

Tatsumi catches the underlying meaning of that and winces in guilt. "I never meant to hurt you."

"I know," Akame smiles. "What if...you didn't have to choose one or the other of us?"

"You m-mean...b-be with...both of you?" Tatsumi asks hesitantly, obviously afraid of offending her and getting beaten up.

Akame nods.

"I...I don't...I've never really considered...something like that," Tatsumi says.

"Would it be something you'd be okay with?" Akame asks. "I wouldn't mind sharing you as long as I can still be with you."

Tatsumi clearly wants to agree, but he's also clearly worried. "Mine would kill me for suggesting that. And I'd hurt her. Badly."

"I'll ask her," Akame says. "It's my idea, so I'll ask her permission."

"You'd do that?" Tatsumi asks.

"I'd do anything for you," Akame says.

Tatsumi smiles and nods. "Please do, then."

Akame smiles and nods before suddenly looking unsure, shy even. "Can I...kiss you one more time? In case she refuses, and I can't do it again?"

Tatsumi hesitates before nodding. Akame kisses him almost desperately, her shaky breath, and the desperate gasp that follows it loud enough to reach where Sheele and I are hiding. Tatsumi looks a little overwhelmed and dazed, but he wraps his arms around Akame, returning the kiss. After almost thirty seconds, Akame's tongue slips into Tatsumi's mouth and I raise an eyebrow, wondering if kissing is really all Akame plans to do before asking Mine about sharing Tatsumi. However, after a few more seconds, Akame pulls away, both of them gasping and panting for breath. Tatsumi leans his forehead against hers and smiles slightly.

"Wow," he breathes.

"Sorry," Akame says sheepishly. "I lost control a little."

"It's alright," Tatsumi says. "You're a really good kisser."

Akame blushes scarlet, but smiles. After a moment, she steps back, wiping her eyes. "I'll go ask Mine. I hope she agrees."

"So do I," Tatsumi says, blushing slightly.

Akame's smile widens and grows more confident and she turns, walking back toward the base, Tatsumi following after taking a few moments to collect himself. Sheele and I follow them, and they split up at the door, Tatsumi heading to his room and Akame to the back where Leone is training with Mine. When Akame steps into view, both girls stop, Mine sensing that something's up and Leone wanting to hear if Akame succeeded or not.

"Mine, can I talk to you for a moment?" Akame asks.

"Sure," Mine nods. "What's up?"

"I'm in love with Tatsumi," Akame says, apparently not feeling like being delicate about it, or beating around the bush.

Mine bristles instantly, narrowing her eyes. "I'm not going to give him up so you can have him."

"That's not what I'm asking," Akame assures her. "I know how badly it would hurt you to do that, because feeling that when you and him got together is what allowed me to figure out my own feelings for him."

"If you're not asking me to let you have him, what are you telling me for?" Mine asks.

"I'm not asking for you to give him up," Akame says. "I'm asking if you'd be willing to share him."

"Excuse me!?" Mine shrieks. "Why the hell would I do that!?"

"Because you can understand my feelings too, can't you?" Akame asks. "You realized how I felt about him before I did, and you were so afraid of what would happen if I realized it and claimed him that you made a move first, right? So then, you must know how I feel right now. I don't want you to have to let him go, or suffer with not being able to be with him. But..." she sniffs, tears falling down her cheeks. "But I don't know if I can handle not being able to be with him. I don't think I can live without him."

"I thought you and Leone are together," Mine says.

"We are," Leone says. "But her heart belongs to Tatsumi. I'm just renting a room."

Mine stares at the ground in silence for a long minute before sighing heavily, raising her hands to press the heels of her hands into her forehead, hands curled into fists. "You'll kill yourself, won't you? You'll kill yourself if I refuse?"

"No," Akame says. "But I'll leave once the war's over. I can't be around him but not be able to show my feelings for him."

Mine grits her teeth, eyes watering. "Okay. Okay. I'll do it. I'll let you be with him too, because I _do_ know how you feel. But I have conditions. I get to be with him first. He was mine first, so it's only fair. After that, we can trade off. I'll have him for one week, then you can have him for the next. And I don't want you to be making out with him or anything with me in the room. I don't think I'd be able to handle seeing that."

"Okay," Akame nods. "I can agree to those terms."

Mine nods, wiping her eyes. "Okay. I'll...go tell him."

"One more thing," Akame says, Mine looking over at her. "I'm not going to break up with Leone either, so Leone and I will probably share Tatsumi during my weeks."

Mine sighs heavily. "I kind of figured that'd be the case."

Then, she walks into the base. Leone walks over to Akame, smiling, and hugs her.

"I'm so happy for you!" Leone smiles.

"You were wrong," Akame says, pulling back to look up at Leone.

"What?" Leone asks.

"You're not just renting a room in my heart," Akame says. "I love you, Leone. Yes, I love Tatsumi more than anyone else, but I really do love you, too. Part of my heart belongs to you."

Leone's eyes water and she smiles, kissing Akame passionately, Akame returning the kiss in kind. I smile, stepping away from the window Sheele and I have been watching through and find that Sheele's absolutely glowing with joy for her friends.

"So, I guess Akame just got herself, and by extension Tatsumi, a harem," I muse, walking past her.

"I guess so," Sheele nods. "So, what are we going to do now?"

"I'm thinking sparring with Suu," I decide. "And Chelsea should be back soon, so she can join us when she gets here."

Sheele nods and we grab our weapons, heading downstairs to find Suu, ignoring the fact that Lubbock's door is wide open and his and Najenda's clothes are scattered over the floor currently.

* * *

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	16. Chapter 16

Exterminators

I frown as we wait. Three rebel army camps had been slaughtered in the last two days. Some of the corpses looked like they'd been partially eaten by something massive, some of the corpses had been sliced into pieces cleanly, and some were bludgeoned to death. Some were simply missing. Akame is certain this will be the next camp attacked, so, Sheele and I are waiting inside of it, while Akame, Leone, and Tatsumi are waiting in the trees.

"We're sure this is the camp they were going after next, right?" I ask.

"As sure as we can be," Sheele says. "Akame was the one who figured out the next target."

"And she's almost never wrong," I sigh, just as a massive human-praying mantis hybrid Danger Beast stepped out of the trees, staring down at the encampment with a wide, hungry grin on her familiar face. I frown before recognizing the face. "Holy shit. It's that girl from Wild Hunt that Mine shot forever ago."

Sheele stares for a moment before nodding. "You're right." She smiles as Akame leaps out of the trees, slashing the creature and landing on her feet as it crashes to the ground, dead.

A moment later, Leone and Tatsumi are standing to either side of her as they stare at the two people still there. Even from a distance I can see one's katana and the other's X-shaped scar. I draw my sword, walking calmly toward them.

"Payback time," I say, Sheele and I stepping out of the encampment just in time to see the massive creature stand, a crystal on its chest shattering. "Fuck. I'm going on ahead before Tatsumi uses his armor."

Sheele nods and I take off, flames exploding out of my feet to launch me across the distance. The katana-wielder has begun to attack Akame, keeping her from attacking the creature again, and Leone, being a hand-to-hand expert, is fighting the guy with the scar tattoo, both seeming to be fairly evenly matched, which is impressive on his part. As I near Tatsumi, he raises his sword.

"Incurs-" he stops as I snatch his sword, stabbing it down through one of creature's sickle-bladed arms, pinning it to the ground, then flip, slamming a kick into the creature's face, an explosion erupting from my foot and launching it away, its blade tearing free from its arm as Tatsumi's sword fails to move.

"Don't even think about it, Tatsumi," I say, tossing Incursio back as Sheele steps up beside me, Tatsumi joining us a moment later. "You rely on the armor too much. But remember, you could fight before you had armor."

Tatsumi nods. "Together?"

"Together," I nod.

The creature stands, shrieking angrily, and I take off first, tricking it into slashing at me, blocking its blade and grinning. A moment later, Sheele leaps over me, slashing the creature down the front with her two blades before Tatsumi leapt up over the creature, splitting it up the front before flipping and landing on its insect thorax, driving his blade down into it. I shove the arm I'm blocking aside and slash upward, taking it off, and the creature shrieks in pain, then screams. The soundwaves slam into me hard, sending me skidding backward, but does little more than vibrate my bones, thanks to the demon. Once the attack's over, I launch myself forward with flames, coating my right fist in flames and punch the creature in the abdomen just as Tatsumi leaps off of it. The flames around my fist explode, launching the creature backward. Just as I land on my feet, Leone screams in pain. We all look over, seeing one of her legs broken at the knee. She leaps off the other leg at her opponent, throwing a punch, only for her opponent to catch her wrist, then slam a palm strike into her elbow, shattering it and earning another scream of agony. Before he can do anything else, however, he leaps aside, out of the way of Akame's blade, which only barely misses.

"You won't lay another hand on her!" Akame snarls.

The man grins wickedly. "We'll just see about that."

"Jason, look out!" Sheele's voice shouts suddenly.

I spin, seeing a wave of dark purple fluid flying toward me and dive aside, the acid splattering along the ground before Tatsumi passes sideways under the creature's abdomen, splitting it open. It shrieks in pain, staggering backward before Sheele and I charge. It tries to stomp on me and I sidestep it, then spin, slicing the leg's sickle blade off. As soon as I'm facing the creature again, one of Sheele's two blades spins past it, splitting its side open before I catch the handle. As I charge, I realize that I don't even feel a drain on my energy anymore. Either I've suddenly got monstrous amounts of it, or Extase has finally accepted me. Then, I leap into the air in front of the creature, splitting it up the front as Sheele falls past it from behind, splitting it down the back. I flip backward as Tatsumi steps under it and spins, slicing all of the legs off, then leaps out of the way. I land on my feet and dart forward, Sheele doing the same from behind the creature. I smirk as we both slash, blades sparking against each other as they hers passes over mine. Then, the creature's upper body tilts backward and I take a step to the side as it crashes down, lifelessly. I walk forward and slash the head off to be sure, then look over at Akame and Leone just as Akame finally splits her and Leone's opponent diagonally across the torso. He crashes to the ground in a heap and Akame sheathes her sword, walking over to Leone and kneeling, lifting her head into her lap, gently stroking her hair.

"Are you okay?" Akame asks softly.

"I will be in a few minutes," Leone smiles. "Though, I wouldn't mind staying like this longer."

Akame smiles, bending down and kissing her. "Well, you'd better hurry up and recover. I was hoping to be able to spend some time alone with you tonight, but I can't if you're injured."

Leone's eyes light up instantly. "Well, with motivation like that, I'm feeling practically healed already."

I crouch down beside her and poke her broken knee, Leone yelping in pain, her and Akame both glaring at me. "Nope. Still broken."

Tatsumi and Sheele both sigh behind me.

"As soon as I'm healed, I'm kicking your ass," Leone wans me.

"We'll see," I shrug. "In the mean time, Sheele, wanna fuck?"

Sheele's face lights up, and she smiles, even as Akame spits on the ground.

"You're a worthless human being," Akame says.

"What else is new?" I ask, walking away toward the trees with Sheele, since I don't feel like going all the way back to base.

And Sheele knows that, too. As always, she's more than happy to give me whatever I want, whether it's a random booty call, or sex in the middle of the woods. Everything's okay as long as I ask for it, and I can't help but love her even more for every time she accommodates my random and somewhat spontaneous demands.

* * *

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	17. Chapter 17

Whittling

I streak through the ranks of soldiers, spinning and slashing in a blur, killing a couple dozen of them before stepping past my current target, a general preparing for the final battle that's about to start. The General's head spins into the air and I disappear into a side alley and am gone before the rest of the guards reach it. I make my way quickly through the city until I reach my chosen exit. I've killed about a dozen targets. More than I should have, without a doubt, but a low enough number that I should be able to get away safely. Especially since both Akame and Chelsea are also helping.

I skid to a stop as Wave lands in front of me, wearing his armor. I turn to head back the other way and lose him in the woods, only for Run and Kurome to land behind me, Kurome already holding her sword.

"Well that sucks," I sigh. "I suppose there isn't much reason for small talk."

"None!" Wave shouted, crouching.

I spin toward him, pulling my sword back and eyeing a break across his armor's chest, probably Akame's handiwork. I'm pretty sure it will repair itself, but in the mean time, it's a perfect target, even if I _don't_ want to kill Wave.

"Stop!" Kurome shouts before Wave or I can move.

We both turn to her as she throws her sword onto the ground halfway between her and myself.

"I didn't come here to kill you," she says. "I want to talk to you. I want to know why you healed me."

"Because you're one of the Empire's victims," I say. "You had your childhood stolen from you for a lie, and you were tricked into being given a drug that shortened your lifespan. You deserved a second chance, so I gave it to you. both for your sake, and so that Akame hopefully wouldn't have to fight her sister to the death. I'm not going to waste my breath asking you to join us. Only to not fight us."

"You know we can't do that!" Wave snaps.

"I'll agree if Wave and Run both do," Kurome says, both of her comrades staring at her in surprise. "I don't want to kill by big sister. But I don't want to hurt my friends either."

"I won't fight alongside you," Wave says. "But I will promise to be neutral. I will work to protect the civilians. Will that be enough?"

Kurome smiles and nods, then looked to Wave. He clenches his fists, glaring at the ground.

"Wave?" Kurome asks, voice trembling slightly.

"I won't betray the empire!" Wave says finally. "I'm going to change them from the inside!"

"No, you're not," I say. "In order to do that, you'd have to kill Prime Minister Honest, then show the emperor that everything he believes is wrong and was all based on a lie fabricated by the minister. Then you'd have to kill the dozens of corrupt politicians that would try to kill you in order to keep their current lifestyles. It's too late to change things from the inside. I'm sorry. As I said, I don't want you to fight against them. Just don't fight against us either."

"You're asking me to betray the Empire!" Wave shouts. "I won't!" He crouches again and I sigh.

"Wave, please!" Kurome says. "I don't want this to be a fight!"

He stops, staring at her, and I look back and forth between the two before sheathing my sword.

"Wave, would you choose to serve the Empire if it meant that you'd have to say goodbye to Kurome?" I ask.

"What?" Wave asks. "I..."

"Because you need to understand the choice you're making," I say. "Kurome wants the death to stop. She wants to be with her sister again. And she wants to be with _you_, don't you, Kurome?"

Kurome's cheeks turn pink and her eyes widen. "W-What!? N-No! I-I mean...I-I do...b-but not like that!" She covers her face in humiliation.

"If you fight us, you may end up having to fight Akame," I say. "Would you really be okay with having killed Kurome's sister? Would you be okay with forcing her to feel that kind of pain?"

Wave's eyes widen, and his armor disappears in a wave of smoke. "I...I didn't..."

"Think it over," I say, walking away from the city. "I hope you decide to at least be neutral. I like you all. You're all good people. It'd be a shame if you died."

Then, I enter the trees and begin to run, none of the three chasing me.

* * *

I lean back against the rock, sword resting on my right shoulder and Sheele's head on my left. Above us, Akame and Leone are waiting silently. We're fully expecting an attack by the Empire's Dark Squad, the assassins group that Akame was a member of prior to joining Night Raid. While they shouldn't all be as good as Akame, there's no denying the fact that the fight will be among the hardest we've had. We're all tense and silent.

"So, your week with Tatsumi starts tomorrow," I finally say, tired of the tense silence. "You going to start with a threesome, or you two going to take turns going one at a time first?"

"I'm up for anything," Leone says. "It's up to Akame."

Akame hums thoughtfully. "If we don't get attacked, we can share him together first. If we get attacked by five or less, you can go first. And if we get attacked by more than five, I'll go first."

"Deal," Leone grins.

"Sounds like my kind of bet," I chuckle. "Maybe I'm rubbing off on you after all."

"You'd better not be rubbing off on anyone but me," Sheele says.

"I'll rub off on whoever I damn well please, slut," I growl, my left arm betraying my tone and words by gently, and extremely subtly, squeezing her for a moment.

"It's time to go," Akame says. "We'll need to split into two groups.

"You and Leone gone one way, Sheele and I will go the other," I say. "Just tell us where to wait."

Akame nods and pulls out a map, showing me the spot we should wait. I nod and Sheele and I leave to get into position. As we arrive, Sheele glances around nervously.

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Sheele asks.

"They'll be fine," I assure her. "We just need to worry about our side. Their side will be slaughtered."

"So will ours," Sheele says. "Kurome used to be a part of the Dark Squad, right? Will she be here?"

"No," I say. "She agreed to not fight us. She shouldn't be here."

Sheele nods just as something in the trees moves. Sheele and I both go silent and ready ourselves just before the Dark Squad sprints out of the trees. They're all wearing black, and have masks that look like the horns that wrap around the front of Tatsumi's helmet. They've got all manor of weapons from katanas, tantos, daggers, spears, bows. They're an intimidating group, but they're nothing we can't handle. I go first, diving off the cliff we're on and encasing myself in fire as I shoot more out of my feet, exploding to the ground on top of two, the explosion my flames erupt into killing four more. There are still six more. Looks like Akame's getting first crack at Tatsumi. Assuming she's not too broken from having to kill those she once knew after this.

Three with bows take aim, only for Sheele to land behind them, slashing both blades and split all three in half. The last three, one of them wielding a katana and the other two a pair of daggers, leap at me, but I spin, leaping backward from their slashes, then lunge as they're beginning to follow. I reach the one with the katana before he can react and split him in half diagonally across the torso, punching his upper section and sending it crashing into one of the other two's faces. The third slashes at me, but I block one it before Sheele kills him. The last turns to flee and I pick up a dagger from the ground and fling it, sending it stabbing into his back, killing him. A moment later, Akame and Leone sprint out of the trees and slow to a stop, staring at the carnage. Akame, seeing the battle is over, begins to tremble, and Leone takes her into her arms, holding her as Akame begins to cry. After a couple of minutes, she collects herself just before some Rebellion troops arrive to collect the dead and bury them. I get Leone's attention and tilt my head in the general direction of our base, and she nods, the four of us turning and heading back home.

* * *

"My sister asked me to meet her," Akame announces, everyone staring at her. "She didn't say what for, but...there's a good chance that it's for a duel."

"You can't go alone," I say. "Wave, at a minimum, will follow her, and we don't know that he'll allow you to come and go without trying to stop you, even if it _isn't_ a duel."

"I'll go with her," Leone says.

"Let me," Mine says. "I finally got my Imperial Arms working again. I'll snipe for her if I need to."

"No," Akame says. "I'm going alone."

Najenda's silent for a moment before nodding. "Alright. But be careful. Don't assume anyone who's there is an ally."

Akame nods and excuses herself. the rest of us finish eating before all scattering. Sheele and I go to spar with Suu, and do so for the rest of the day, a few of the others cycling through to get some training too. Leone, then Tatsumi, Lubbock shows up to make sure his newly strung Imperial Arms was working properly, Chelsea stops by for a bit, and then Najenda shows up to train. It's always terrifying to see just how strong she us using only her prosthetic arm and her body as her weapon. Finally, sometime past midnight, Akame returns, walking alongside Tatsumi.

"You're back," I say, sheathing my sword. "What happened?"

"She wanted to make sure I was okay after killing the Dark Squad," Akame says. "And she needed someone to grieve with."

Wave showed up expecting them to be trying to kill each other," Tatsumi said. "Luckily, no one had to fight anyone."

"And Kurome finally kissed him," Akame smiled. "She was touched that he came to protect her."

I smile. "Now let's hope she can keep him out of our way when the war starts."

"She will," Tatsumi says. "He promised to focus on protecting civilians, not killing rebels."

"Good," Sheele smiles. "So, since you're here, would you two like to train with Suu with us?"

Tatsumi grimaces, then nods. Akame shakes her head, though, and wishes us all a good night before heading to bed. I draw my sword as Tatsumi draws his, and just like that, we're back to struggling to fend off Suu.

* * *

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	18. Chapter 18

To War

I watch the sky in silence. The plans have changed. Esdeath has created an entire army made of ice. The Ice Cavalry. Frozen centaurs with ice shields and jousting spears. Thanks to my ring, I've been placed on the front lines in dealing with them, alongside Tatsumi, Mine, Sheele, Najenda, and the rest of the Imperial Arms users. I'm riding a horse at the center, as my ring will be the best weapon against the Ice Cavalry, then Sheele is beside me since we always fight as a team, and would have done so even without permission, Tatsumi is to my left so that I can help him fight without him having to push his armor until he has to, and Najenda and Suu are behind me. Mine is about the middle of the army where she can stay at range while also sniping to cover Tatsumi and the rest of us, but mostly Tatsumi. Akame, Leone, Chelsea, and Lubbock are all inside the capital assassinating our last targets. The leaders of the Empire. The sources of corruption in the Empire. Esdeath is the only one here for us to kill. I sigh, dropping my gaze to the capitol. It's finally beginning. This festival of blood. This one, glorious chance for me to let loose. To wield my ring as it was truly meant to be, and to soak my blade in enough blood for even my demon to be satisfied.

Najenda gives the signal and dozens of cannons fire up at Esdeath, only for her to form ice around her arms and legs to hover, then swing an arm and send a wave of ice spikes into them, obliterating them all in an instant. I sigh. I never really expected that to work, but I had hope. Najenda, after recovering from her brief state of shock, signals again. This time, it's a small army of giant, extremely powerful Danger Beasts that are unleashed, the soldier wielding the Imperial Arms that allows him to control them seated on one of them. It's a terrifying sight, even for me. However, after a moment, an equally massive army of flying Danger Beasts, including dragons, suddenly bursts out of the clouds, meeting our ground-based Danger Beasts in a massive sea of writhing, shrieking, roaring monsters. Esdeath begins to laugh, then orders the Ice Cavalry to charge. I draw my sword, spurring my horse forward in a trot, Tatsumi and Sheele remaining in place. After about fifty yards, I drop off my horse and pat the side of its neck, the horse turning and riding back to the Rebel army. I turn back to the Ice Cavalry as they begin to bear down on my. My eyes rise to Esdeath, who's watching me interestedly. Then, just as one of the Ice Cavalry troops moves to stab me with its lance, I begin. In a massive eruption of flame and partially melted debris, I obliterate a dozen Ice Cavalry troops. Then, I explode out of the remaining smoke and debris, tearing across the line of Ice Cavalry first in one direction, then the other. Behind me, the Rebel army cheers, watching as I use both my sword and the flames covering my both to obliterate Esdeath's pawns. My flames focus, condensing into flaming armor, complete with a long, spiked tail with a morning star on the end, devil horns, clawed fingers and toes, and flames encasing my sword, which, thanks to the material it was made out of, was strengthened when heated.

"All forces, charge!" Najenda ordered.

The Ice Cavalry began to reform a distance from us and I push off the ground, flames exploding from the back of my shoulders in a pair of jets like wings. A moment later, I explode into the Ice Cavalry, literally, and begin to slaughter them while the rest of our army catches up. The Imperial army charges as well, seeing that the Ice Cavalry will definitely not be holding me back, and as Sheele reaches me, we both set to work. We shred our way through the Ice Cavalry quickly, reaching the Imperial Soldiers and beginning the blood fest for real. I remove a head here, an arm there, split a torso in half over there. I burn one into charcoal for attacking Sheele from behind, then send a trail of explosions blasting through the Ice Cavalry to my left, careful to have the explosions skip around both Tatsumi, who's wearing his armor in order to deal with the ice Cavalry, and the soldiers who inherited the axe Imperial Arms from the battle on the ship so long ago and the troop who had inherited the rapier Imperial Arms one of the Jaegers had once had.

I hear someone cry out behind me and glance back, seeing Sheele had slashed a soldier that had actually managed to reach me. I smile as my tail flicks out to my right, impaling one troop before passing around his body, burning it but not doing physical damage as it swung at another, once again doing solid damage when the morning star crashed into another soldier's head. I set back to work, Sheele and I almost dancing through the army as we massacre them. Tatsumi passes us at one point. At another, Suu is with us. Water dragons controlled by the ring Imperial Arms from the fight on the ship clear an area off to our left at one point. I amputate an arm, leg, both legs at the waist. I split a torso, a head, an arm from between the index and ring fingers to the shoulder. I leap over a line of soldiers and crash down on a soldier, crushing him in a spray of blood and shattered bone fragments, then spin, my sword and claws shredding the troops around me, creating a brief blood rain. I look up at Esdeath as the blood hisses and evaporates against my flames, soaking everything around me and getting my demon cheering inside my head, allowing me all the control I want, since I'm giving him exactly what he wants. Esdeath watches me calculatingly. Sheele steps past me, slashing a wide arc in front of me and seven Ice Cavalry troops suddenly materialize behind me, only for an explosion to shoot off of me for each of them, obliterating them all, along with a couple dozen Imperial soldiers.

Soldiers swarm toward us from the left and right and Sheele and I separate, slaughtering them and working our way in a circle, meeting back up in the center and slashing the last of the troops together. I turn back to the wall and beckon Esdeath down to fight. A wide, sadistic grin forms on her face instantly, and she forms herself a horse made out of ice, leaping onto it and rides it straight down the wall, four Ice Cavalry soldiers flanking her, two on either side. I raise my sword, then slash downward, flames erupting off of my blade into an explosion that rips through the Imperial army to the wall, clearing Esdeath a path directly to me.

"Go," I say flatly, Sheele instantly turning and slaughtering her way toward the Imperial Arms users with the axe and rapier, who are struggling against the Ice Cavalry.

A moment later, Esdeath has reached me and my flaming blade meets her ice sword. The impact sends a massive explosion of flames out behind her, narrowly missing her, and incinerates a dozen Imperial troops, destroying the four Ice Cavalry troops that had been following her, as well as her horse from the force of the impact. However, it also sends out massive shards of ice behind me that impale a dozen Rebel troops. I don't mind though. The demon's bloodlust is mixing with my own, and currently, one death is as good as another. Unless is Esdeath's. Hers we'll enjoy. I shove her away and chase after her, our swords clashing rapidly. She deflects a slash upward, then as she slashes back downward, a gigantic meteor of ice blinks into appearance over us, dropping. My sword clashes with hers yet again, deflecting it to the side before my tail flicks upward, an explosion erupting up into the massive ice formation, shattering it into dust. I slash at her and she flips backward, my sword slashing the coat tails off of her jacket. She cackles as she lands, her hat blowing away, just as a soldier reports that the North Gate has been breached, the exact opposite side of the Capital from us. I grin behind the flames forming a helmet around my face. I can see Esdeath doing the math. Even with her on the battlefield, the capitol will fall. She glances at the massive structure where the commander of the Rebel army should be, but her attention immediately snaps back to me as I begin to assault her again, our swords clashing over and over, all the while I use my tail and small blasts of flames to slaughter the troops around her. I can see Esdeath's fury grow with each death. She may be a psychopath, but in some twisted way she truly does care about her troops.

Finally, she shrieks in rage, and when our blades meet, a massive formation of ice spikes explode off of hers, impaling me several times over and suspending me in the air a hundred feet for all the rebels to see. My sword stabs into the ground below me and the demon laughs mockingly inside my head.

_Oh shut up,_ I grumble at him, just as Mine places a shot through the gaping hole through my chest, obliterating the ice impaling me.

My body begins to bleed heavily as I fall, but the demon hasn't had his fill yet. So, a moment later, it's him who lands on his feet and picks up my sword, the wound in his chest fully healed. He returns control to me and I restore my flames to the way they were and turn to Esdeath, who's watching me in a sadistic, crazed interest. However, a gong begins to ring suddenly and Esdeath huffs and turns, fleeing into the capitol, along with what troops remain, though there aren't many. I huff, letting my flames go out just as Sheele reaches me, throwing her arms around me. I hug her back, tucking my smile into her shoulder to hide it.

"Are you alright?" Sheele asks.

"I'm fine," I promise. "He's not done with me just yet, so he healed me."

Sheele nods and pulls back, giving me a quick kiss. "You were amazing!"

"If I let loose, I can keep her focused on me long enough for Akame to finish her," I say. "But I wasn't about to win that fight. She was still holding back against me."

Sheele nods. "I figured." She glances past me and suddenly goes pale.

I spin and my mouth falls open as I stare at a giant. A suit of armor that towers more than two hundred feet above the capitol. As we watch it, an eyeball-like jewel on its chest shines, then unleashes a massive beam of energy, which explodes through the capitol's wall on the North side, then through the Rebel army, incinerating everything inside the beam and leaving a trench at the bottom of a cloud of dust and incinerated soldiers behind. I swear harshly, picking up Sheele and fly to Najenda, who's beside Suu and Tatsumi.

"What do we do?" I ask instantly.

I hear whistling suddenly, and when I look back, I see a massive cloud of what look like metal spheres flying toward the army. I step out in front of the others and raise my hands, sending out a massive flood of pure white flames just before a sea of explosions bloom around us, my flames barely managing to hold back the explosion before us.

"Can either side of you stop that thing?" Najenda asks.

"Probably not," I say. "But he wants to try."

"Then you and Tatsumi go," Najenda says, pulling out a flare gun and firing into the air to signal Mine that she's responsible for doing what she can to shoot down the projectiles. "Suu and Sheele will join the forces inside the city."

Tatsumi and I nod just as the goliath Imperial Arms fires hundreds of rockets out of its shoulders, the rockets arcing high in the air and beginning to rain toward the army. However, as they do, a spot directly below them flashes before a wall of rapid, massive blasts of energy sprays out of that point, intercepting and blocking all of the explosives, the sky suddenly filled with a hundred explosions.

"That was Mine!" Tatsumi says. "She's in trouble!"

"Get her!" I say. "Bring her to Najenda, then meet me at the giant."

Tatsumi nods and takes off while I turn, launching myself at the giant. Its mouth begins to glow as I near it, and its head turns toward me. Then, a projectile explodes out of its mouth, streaking toward me. I slash upward, sending a massive explosion out of my sword's blade, and the concussion manages to deflect the projectile into the air where it explodes harmlessly. I close the rest of the distance in seconds and slash the left side of the giant's chest armor, only for my sword to spark off of it harmlessly. I swear, landing against it just before Tatsumi reaches it above me, fist exploding into the giant's forehead, cracking and cratering the metal slightly before the giant began to rock backward, only to step back and stop itself. Still, given its size and power, being able to rock it back a step is amazing. I launch myself to a building below the giant and sigh. It can't be helped. I'll have to use one hundred percent of my ring's power.

I take a long, steadying breath, then activate my ring the rest of the way. The flames go out like a candle, leaving me in cherry red armor with a faceless mask, minus the two eyeholes, a pair of devil horns that reach backward before curling up, a pair of jets of bright orange flames shooting out of a pair of rectangular nozzles like a pair of wings, and all of the metal designed to look like scaled plates. The tail and claws are the same, but the raw power and speed of the armor is so insanely high that I hate using it. It's disorienting, and if I'm not careful, I'll use too much strength and dislocate my shoulder with a punch, or my hip with a kick. Or I'll too fast, and crash into something. but for this situation, it's perfect.

I look up at the giant, eyes scanning it carefully. It's massive, horrifying, and powerful, but it's still an Imperial Arms. It was made by humans, and as such, it has a weakness. Finally, I find my mark. The chest's laser. The eye-like object that fires it can be broken, or blocked. The laser would deflect into the giant, or would simply explode. I nod and exploded off the ground, slashing out to my right with a massive blade of flames extending a hundred feet off my sword's blade. The flame blade slices the top of a bell tower off. A massive flaming hand forms around my arm and expands, catching the tower piece before my flame wings explode into thrusters, launching me at the giant. When I reach it, I drive the piece of tower deep into the chest's opening. As I do, I kick with all the force I've got and my foot craters the chest beside it as much as Tatsumi had before, about twelve inches across and maybe an inch deep. barely enough to count as a chip. However, the giant staggers back a step before Tatsumi again crashes into its head, sending it careening as it's already off balance. It turns, despite being in the process of falling, its other foot catching it just as I land beside Tatsumi on a building now behind the giant.

"This thing's going to be tough," Tatsumi says.

"If we can plug up that hole on the chest and get him to fire his laser again, we might be able to make him explode," I tell him.

"How much collateral?" Tatsumi asks.

"Less than if we don't stop it," I say.

"Shikoutaser Trump Card, activate!" The Prime Minister's voice shouts suddenly.

The giant freezes suddenly before the Emperor's voice begins to scream and ask the Prime Minister what's happening. I narrow my eyes, crouching and raising my sword. Then, suddenly, flesh appears inside the eye and mouth holes. The eyes are pure white and wide open, and a ring of pointed white fangs suddenly appear inside the mouth. Then, the armor suddenly explodes, flying off of the giant and scattering into the capitol, chunks as big as buildings, or bigger, exploding to the ground everywhere. I swear harshly, staring up at the monster the giant has become. Exposed muscle pulls tight and swells, replacing the armor. There's a gigantic eye on each shoulder, knee, the chest, and the muscles have caught some of the armor and integrated it. It has armor on its abdomen, arms, a massive red cape with a raised collar and the bottom in tatters, it has a strip of metal along where its jaw should be that holds on the giant's metal hat, then with four spikes, two per side, reaching forward off the metal strip, and a long, metal-plated tail.

"Burst Mode!" the Prime Minister shouted, cackling.

"This is really bad!" Tatsumi says.

"You fools," the Emperor's voice booms. "Trying to go against the Empire. As a ruler...I WILL JUDGE EVERY ONE OF YOU NOW! ! !"

The giant bends forward, hand exploding to the ground before dozens of rockets explode out of its back, beginning to rain down on the city indiscriminately. Tatsumi and I stare at the destruction, my demon reveling in the destruction, laughing at the Emperor killing his own subjects and troops, not ours.

"This is a celebration of my new nation!" The emperor cheers as the giant bends backward slightly, a massive sphere of black energy beginning to form in front of its chest, growing quickly until it rivals the giant's torso in size.

"Stop it!" Tatsumi shout, both of us leaping to try and stop the giant's attack, only for it to flash past us.

I barely manage to get my head turned before it finds its mark in our army. The blast, already the size of the palace, expands rapidly on impact, forming a massive black sphere amidst our troops before shrinking out of existence, leaving no sign that anything inside the sphere had ever existed not two seconds before, not even dust. Just a gaping maw of a crater, half a mile across and half a mile deep. I turn back to the front, roaring in rage and launching myself forward. The demon doesn't take control. He's enjoying the slaughter too much to help end it. So, when I reach the monster and step off of its abdominal armor, I'm the one who uses my sword and a massive flame blade extending from it to split the giant up across the chest and the eye embedded in the center of it. The Emperor's shriek of pain is joined by a deafening roar of agony. Then, the giant's mouth opens and a wet mass of small objects is forced out before disassembling into what look like tiny bug-human hybrids armed with a swords. Dozens of them. Maybe a hundred.

"You vermin!" the Emperor snarled. "All of you who disturbed my beloved Empire, the nation my parents so loved and gave their lives for! I'll kill every one of you!"

I fly at the cloud of small creatures, gripping my sword with both hands and narrowing my eyes. They're slow to me now. Whether they're naturally fast or not, with my armor, they're slow. And they're in the way. I unleash a battle cry and speed up slashing rapidly as I streak through the cloud, shredding them. Tatsumi shreds the half of them that went after him, and when we reach him, I slash the giant across the face a second before Tatsumi slams a punch into its cheek, rocking it backward and silencing the Emperor's scream, but not doing as much as my sword.

"Blade, Tatsumi!" I shout, flipping and launching myself back toward the giant.

"You are annoying me," the Emperor snarls. "Before I move on, I'll make sure you're dead. Take this!"

He fires a dozen rockets at Tatsumi and I, and we begin to dodge around them, the rockets filling the air with explosions, even without hitting us. I swear. We're being forced to the ground. Suddenly, Tatsumi takes off, chasing a rocket heading for a crowded street. he manages to block it with his body, suffering horrible burns in the process, but just as he does, a massive blade sudden stabs down into him, smashing him into the ground, the blade nearly splitting him in half.

"Opening," the Emperor's voice sneers.

I look up at the giant in shock, seeing the blade extending from its hand. I swallow hard. I can't wait to see if he's okay. I have to stop this thing. Immediately. The blade retracts as I fly back toward the giant.

"You really annoyed me!" the Emperor is saying. "This is the strongest melee armor! Jigo Ken!"

Then, the blade tears free of Tatsumi just in time for the giant's left fist to explode down on him, exploding to the ground. I finally manage to reach the giant, tears running down my cheeks. For all my armor's speed, I was too slow. Too weak. This thing's just too much. I roar in rage and effort, a fireball twice the size of my body forming around me before I explode into the giant feet first. The explosion is almost the size of the giant's torso, but when the smoke clears, there's no visible damage. The giant stands, lifting its fist from Tatsumi.

"Execution complete," the Emperor says, only t stop, staring down at the dust cloud. "What!? You took Jigo Ken and you're still standing!?"

My eyes widen and I look down, staring at Tatsumi, who is, indeed, standing in the crater, completely unscathed and free of blood, suddenly.

"You're trying my patience, you bastard!" the Emperor roars.

Suddenly, a pair of massive, draconic wings erupt from Tatsumi's back and my eyes widen. It's begun. He's beginning to transform into Incursio's dragon fully.

"You dare defy the Emperor!?" the Emperor seethes. "I'll crush you!"

I take a breath and focus, then explode skyward, flames condensing around my left fist before it reach its head and throw a punch, my punch connecting at the same moment as Wave's foot, Wave now bearing Run's wings behind his shoulders. The giant staggers away as the Emperor begins to shriek about there being more insects. I ignore him, turning to Wave.

"You're late," I say, glancing at the wings. "Is he..."

"He's alive," Wave says. "He's working on trying to gather up everybody who's hurt, and trying to keep people as safe as he can. But there's something you need to know."

"What?" I ask.

"Your girlfriend, with the purple hair," Wave says. "I saw her fighting Esdeath near the North Gate."

I explode into movement without a second thought, streaking through the air so fast I can hardly process what's happening. I see Esdeath standing in the street, a mountain of corpses beneath her feet, massive ice formations everywhere. And then, I see Sheele, lying bloody and lifeless on the ground before her. I roar in unbridled rage and hatred and in the blink of an eye, my body shifts. But it's not the demon that meets Esdeath's ice sword with my own, which is engulfed in black flames. It's not the demon whose explosion sends Esdeath exploding through the capitol's outer wall and bouncing away from the city. I shift back and kneel beside Sheele, lifting her into my arms and stare at the puncture wound through her heart. A perfect stab wound. That's the only wound, too.

"No," I choke out through gritted teeth. "You can't do this to me! You can't die! I can't lose you! Please Sheele! I love you!"

"If you had loved her, you'd have been here to protect her," Esdeath's voice says behind me coldly. "She was certain you'd save her. Right up until the moment she bled to death."

I fold forward, sobbing into Sheele, my armor fading in a cloud of thick black smoke. I can't do it. I can't live like this. I can't live forever alone, watching the people that matter to me die. If this is all I have to look forward to, then I'd rather Esdeath kill me.

"How pathetic," Esdeath said. "All that power." she huffs. "What a waste."

However, as I sense her move to kill me, there's a sudden metallic crash and she shouts in surprise, leaping away. I feel a hand touch the top of my head and open my eyes, my head rising to stare at Sheele's face. Except, it's not Sheele's face. Not fully. She was possessed. A pair of scaled horns had sprouted from her forehead and now reached back along the top of her head, ending in points where her skull curved downward, her violet eyes were now red with black pupils, she had a long, purple tail with a rounded end, and a pair of fangs. The demon possessing Sheele stood, looking down at the hole in Sheele's chest before frowning in distaste, the hole sealing itself. Then, she smiled, giving me a kiss. My eyes widened before she pulled back, smiling knowingly.

"I probably look pretty different, huh?" Sheele asks, the horns beginning to recede as her eyes returned to normal, her fangs shrinking back into normal canines and her tail receding back up into her dress. "Just one thing left."

She began to speak quickly in Latin, but even as she did, I heard the errors. My eyes widened.

"No, wait!" I say, moving to cover her mouth, but it's too late.

Her eyes flash red, and there's a sensation, like a piece of reality suddenly breaks, and then it's over. She smiles proudly. "There. All done."

"All done!?" I ask. "Do you have any idea what you've just done!?"

"Yes," Sheele says calmly, cupping my cheek. "I fused my soul to a demon's, that way you won't have to be afraid of losing me anymore."

My mouth falls open as my eyes practically roll out of my head. I want to slap her. I want to slap her and call her a string of horrible names for being stupid enough to intentionally fuse herself to a demon _for me_. Instead, I grab her by the face and give her the biggest, fiercest, most passionate kiss of my life, to the point where _my_ head's spinning after, and she actually stumbles slightly.

"I hate you so fucking much, you stupid cunt!" I say.

"I love you too," Sheele smiles, kissing me again.

Esdeath finally clears her throat, and I pull away. A single fact suddenly shines in my mind. This is _her_ fault. She killed Sheele.

I turn, my armor blazing back to life as I use my foot's claws to flick my sword back up to myself, flames coating the blade instantly as I snarl like the monster I'm about to prove I am.

"I'm going to burn you to ash!" I snarl in the demon's voice.

"We'll see," Esdeath smirks, readying herself as Sheele picks up her blades and prepares herself beside me, shifting back into her demon form, this time with a pair of massive, purple bat wings bursting out of her back, ripping the back of her dress off from her waist to her shoulders, the front falling away and hanging from her waist.

Suddenly, Tatsumi's voice roars and we all turn to look, seeing him explode through the giant's torso entirely, blasting it wide open. Then, as the giant crashes to the ground, Tatsumi arcs around and flies over to us, crashing to the ground beside me just as Wave lands to Sheele's other side. Esdeath's eyes widen before she grins widely, then begins to laugh.

"It's over, Esdeath," I growl. "You can't beat all three of us."

"Perhaps," Esdeath grins. "However, allow me to show you to true power of my anti-army trump card." She raises a hand and suddenly bits of ice shoot into the air from all over the battlefield as she recalls the power of the Ice Cavalry. "I created them one-by-one over the last few days. In other words, this is the result of my full power used constantly over several days! Ice Storm Commander-In-Chief!"

The mass of frozen air and ice above her suddenly explodes, pitch black clouds filling the sky past the horizon in every direction. It begins to snow like a blizzard and Esdeath begins to laugh psychotically.

"Be ready," I growl. "With so much snow around her, she's going to be damn-near all-powerful."

"We'll see," Sheele says.

We all explode forward at the same time, Esdeath grinning before a massive explosion of ice spike erupt from the ground before her. I blast my way through with my flames, Tatsumi and Sheele both slash their way through, and Wave flips over it. All four of us strike at her at the same time and our strikes, my sword, one of Sheele's blades, Tatsumi's spearhead, now with a cross-shaped blade, and Wave's foot, all explode into her sword at once, shattering the ice blade and sending her streaking backward. However, just as we do, a pair of ice spikes suddenly stab down into my shoulders, and one impales Sheele through the back. Wave and Tatsumi both only receive scratches and both take off as the massive rain of ice spikes chases them, leaving me with half a dozen more impaled through my back and staking me to the ground while Sheele, who was slumped forward and partially held up by the fist, got another through her lower left leg, and one down into the back of her right hip and out through her knee. However, after a moment, both of our demons force our bodies to convulse, the ice all shattering and being ejected from our bodies in sprays of blood before our bodies heal. Then, we grab our blades, and we're off again. I reach Esdeath just as she spins around Tatsumi. She forms herself a sword and deflects my blade before my free hand crashes into her gut, flames exploding out of my elbow like a rocket thruster. She grunts and is raised into the air just as ice suddenly encases me. However, it flashes cherry red and explodes off just ahead of a fireball before Sheele explodes down on Esdeath's chest, driving her blades into her chest, only for Esdeath to shatter.

I spin as Esdeath slashes me across the chest, her sword effortlessly breaking through my armor, then deflects both of Sheele's blades and stabs her through the heart for the second time, third if the ice spike is counted. Then, she releases the ice sword and a dozen more ice blades suddenly sprout from Sheele's body all over while Esdeath uses a newly formed ice sword to fend off both Tatsumi and Wave. I stand as Sheele's body once again convulses and vents the remaining ice with her blood before healing. I grit my teeth. Our demons are powerful, obviously, and we're incredibly hard to kill, but we're not immortal. If this keeps up, we're going to die.

_"Right,"_ my demon's voice suddenly sighs in my head. _"So, let's chat."_

I deflected Esdeath's sword several times before she drives it through my abdomen and out through my spine, then rips it up and out through my right shoulder, only for the wound to instantly seal back up.

_"If things keep going as they are, we're dead,"_ I say.

_"I agree," _my demon says. _"Fortunately for you, the demon possessing your girlfriend took a liking to you two.__"_

_"What do you mean?"_ I ask as Esdeath cuts me halfway to ribbons, the wounds healing slower than before.

_"She's my...what would you call it...friend with benefits?"_ My demon says. _"She's my mate. And she chose to teach Sheele how to do to them what was done to us, that way I wouldn't be able to kill her in order to fuck with you. So, I'll be keeping her around. Which means we'll need to _actually_ go all out against Esdeath."_

_"What, you mean, you'll give me control?"_ I ask.

_"Yes,"_ the demon says. _"Since you're actually not too bad to keep around, and since my mate is currently fused to yours, I'll work with you for the next couple of decades. Starting now. My power is yours when you actually need it."_

I feel something inside of me shift, a power I've only felt from the outside of the cage I keep him in flooding my veins. I focus, and when I shift, it's different than any time before. It's more powerful. The moment I do, the flame wings on my back turn pitch black and begin to roar deafeningly, getting everyone's attention as my armor repairs itself instantly, any lasting wounds still on my body sealing. Then, I explode off of the ground, my demon using our wings to fire a barrage of pitch black fireballs into the sky, blasting the ice spikes heading for us into oblivion. Then, my sword crashes into Esdeath's, and the ground below us shatters.

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	19. Chapter 19

Settled

_"__Starting now. My power is yours when you actually need it."_

I feel something inside of me shift, a power I've only felt from the outside of the cage I keep him in flooding my veins. I focus, and when I shift, it's different than any time before. It's more powerful. The moment I do, the flame wings on my back turn pitch black and begin to roar deafeningly, getting everyone's attention as my armor repairs itself instantly, any lasting wounds still on my body sealing. Then, I explode off of the ground, my demon using our wings to fire a barrage of pitch black fireballs into the sky, blasting the ice spikes heading for us into oblivion. Then, my sword crashes into Esdeath's, and the ground below us shatters. Her eyes widen in surprise before I roar, and the face mask of my armor's helmet transforms into a blast of flames, missing her only because she uses a pillar of ice suddenly exploding from the ground below her to avoid it, though the flames hit the ice pillar and explode, launching her still. She flips, landing on her feet and left hand, skidding backward before Tatsumi explodes off the ground toward her, roaring deafeningly loudly and beginning to swipe and slash at her with his spear, Esdeath fending him off rapidly. For a moment, her sword's crashing into him over and over, failing to break through his armor but wearing at it and his energy both. However, finally, he spun, his tail exploding into her gut and flinging her before Wave fired dozens of feathers from his wings at her, the feathers arcing around and streaking toward her from all sides. She grinned widely, flipping and deflecting them all with her sword before beginning to fend off Sheele, her sword slashing Sheele somewhere every few seconds, though Sheele's demon healed them rapidly. Finally, Esdeath deflected both blades and a massive ice spike erupted from the ground, impaling Sheele through the gut, only for Sheele to cut the tip off and shove herself free of the rest, the wound healing.

"This is more like it!" Esdeath grinned as I reach her again.

She avoids my first slash, which sends out a massive black explosion before her sword tears a gash in my left side. I twist, slashing at her and she deflects it before twisting and pulling her sword back across her body. Then, suddenly, her arm's a blur, the blade tearing into me seemingly a dozen times at once, even as my own demon-and-armor-augmented speed allows me to deflect two dozen more strikes. Ice spikes begin to rain down around us as we fight, one scratching the shoulder of my armor before I'm deflecting them as well. Esdeath grins predatorially only for the ice spikes to suddenly stop as Wave and Tatsumi begin to block them, Wave with his wings' feathers and Tatsumi with his spear. And then, Akame's there, standing opposite Esdeath from me and striking at her rapidly and aiming for any bit of flesh she can get access to. Esdeath adjusts perfectly, however, and suddenly Akame and I are _both_ on the defensive. Finally, to Ice Cavalry troops erupt from the ground on either side of Esdeath just as my sword gets deflected upward and their lances impale me through my lungs as they charge away from Esdeath, allowing her to turn on Akame.

The fight is brief, bloody, and brutal. In the three seconds it takes Sheele to reach me and shred the two ice puppets with her sword, Akame's suddenly covered in gashes and panting. I flip, landing on my feet and explode forward, black flames roaring off my blade. Esdeath wheels around on my just as Wave flashes past behind her, getting Akame out of the way. Then, just as Esdeath moves to block my sword, an orange energy beam flashes past, snapping her blade off just above the guard. Her eyes widen, but before I can split her in half, there are ice chains wrapped around my body, holding my arms back, my legs to the ground, and hooks and harpoons on the ends of the chain are impaling my body everywhere. Esdeath's face shines with victorious glee as she forms a new sword and moves to take my head off, only for Akame and Sheele to both appear at my sides, slashing at her and forcing her to leap away as Sheele's free blade slashes the chains all just above the ground, freeing me.

A blast of flames clears the ice from my body and my armor transforms into flames and back before Akame, Sheele, and I are off again, Sheele passing me one of her blades just as the demon transfers me his millennia of knowledge on all things violent, including dual-wielding swords, particularly mismatched ones. Esdeath's sword becomes a blur as she begins to fend us all off, both arms blurring with it, and I'm pretty sure I catch her holding a second sword at one point, but I can't be sure. She's a monster. Even more so than me, and I'm half demon. Finally, she ducks under Akame's blade and spins, slashing in an arc and splitting me and Sheele's abdomens open while Akame just barely manages to block it with her katana. As I skid to a stop, I grin, raising the half of Extase I'm holding, a droplet of blood slowly making its way down the edge.

Esdeath looks down, seeing a tiny scratch on the right side of her neck. Barely more than a paper cut, but in a location where another inch deeper would be lethal. Her face splits into a wide, excited grin as I hand Sheele back her blade. Esdeath spreads her arms invitingly, but before we can attack, a fist bigger than her entire body flashes down at her from above, missing her by a hair's breadth. I stare up at the massive dragon above her. It looks like a full-sized version of Tatsumi's most recent armor transformation, and when I look around, Tatsumi's gone.

"Tatsumi!" Akame gasps as she realizes the same thing.

"Not for much longer," I say. "Let's go!"

We all streak forward, and Esdeath slams a hand into the ground, forming a massive tree of ice, which then begins to fire ice spikes the size of my arms. Tatsumi and I both roar, sending out twin jets of flame, Tatsumi's closer to a beam than a jet of flame, which obliterate both the spikes and the tree. Esdeath snarls in rage, slashing her sword and firing another barrage at us before avoiding another punch from Tatsumi. However, I launch myself forward, reforming my armor's face mask before slashing the ice spikes rapidly out of the air. Then, just as Esdeath flips over Tatsumi's tail, I slash, my sword exploding into hers and sending her exploding into the ground. She bounces once, grunting in pain before flipping and stabbing her sword into the ground with her right hand, then flip off of the just as Akame slashed at her, landing in the distance. I land beside Sheele as a drop of blood falls from Esdeath's fingers to the ground.

"You're getting better at working as a team," Esdeath says.

"You're getting sloppy from getting drunk on the adrenaline," I say, all four of us charging.

Esdeath grins, lips moving and suddenly Akame's not beside us anymore. Also, the snow has stopped. Not as in the skies are clear. It's all hovering in the air. She's frozen time. I smirk. Demons are immune. And apparently so isn't Tatsumi, because just as Esdeath finishes amputating her right arm at the bicep, she leaps backward inside of a downward punch from him, then spins, a massive sword blade forming with a section of ice arm to connect it to her stump before she splits Tatsumi across the chest. Time resumes just as he crashes to the ground and Esdeath turns, her new ice blade rapidly clashing with me and Sheele's blades. After several seconds, she spins, knocking my blade aside and allows me to stagger past her in a rookie mistake, before her ice blade becomes a hammer with spikes extending from the head. The spikes impale me several times over from behind before she sends the hammer head flying through the air into Sheele, the hammer flipping and crashing down on her before bouncing away, my body falling off somewhere along the way. I recover more slowly this time, then step up beside Sheele just as she stands, the last of her ruined dress falling away as she picks up her blades, her tail twitching agitatedly.

"She's...strong," Sheele pants.

"Hang back," I say. "I'll take over from here."

"We've been losing _together_," Sheele says. "How are you going to stop her _alone_ now?"

"I'm not going to be alone," I say, just as Akame slashes Tatsumi, who had lost control and nearly attacked her, then pleaded with her to kill him.

"Tatsumi!" Sheele gasps.

"It's fine," I say.

I launch myself to Tatsumi, whose eyes roll to me, though the markings caused by Akame's blade have almost reached his head, at which point he'll be dead. To my left, a massive wave of raw power explodes off of Akame as she activates Murasame's trump card, which first requires her to surrender her humanity. Killing the man she loves definitely qualifies.

"Jeez, Tatsumi," I sigh, setting a hand on the end of his snout, the black script spreading over him halting as I channel my demon's healing power into his body. "First you go and catch a parasite, and now you break your girlfriend's heart. What am I going to do with you?"

I focus and golden light shines from under my hand before I swing my arm out to my side and Tatsumi tumbles across the ground, the script finishing spreading over Incursio's dragon, killing it. Tatsumi stands, staring at the dragon, then down at his golden-armor-clad hands.

"What?" Tatsumi breathed.

"You've got that armor for about ten minutes," I say. "It's the last of Incursio's power given physical form."

He flexes the wings on his back and nods before I turn, the back of my armor opening before the same sword he'd had when he joined Night Raid flew out, Tatsumi catching it and staring at it.

"I reforged it," I say. "It's the same metal as mine now, though I mixed a little black steel in for the color. Where's Wave?"

"Here," Wave says, stepping up beside us, panting and holding his armor's sword form, his wings collapsed into a single disk behind himself. "I'm tapped out."

"I figured," I nod, setting a hand on his shoulder just as rage flashes through my mind, blood red light shining from my hand this time before Wave gasps.

Then, his armor and wings deploy again, once again covering him.

"How did you..." he trails off as I turn back to where Akame and Esdeath are fighting almost on-level now.

"One last push boys?" I ask. "Can't let a couple of girls show us up, monsters though they may be."

"Let's do it," Tatsumi says.

"One last time," Wave nods.

Then, we all explode forward. As we do, Esdeath sends a cloud of ice spikes flying at Akame, who's walking calmly toward her, only for her arm to blur at her sides, and the ice spikes to shatter before her, the dust and mist created forming a sphere around her, betraying her arm's true movements. Then, Akame leaps away just as Tatsumi, Wave, and I reach Esdeath, all of us slashing, Wave using a large feather that's sharpened into a blade.

"Tatsumi!" Akame breathes.

Esdeath's blade blocks ours, only for Tatsumi and I to each slam a punch through her blade into her gut, sending her exploding backward. When she bounces, the ground shatters. Then, Wave explodes down on her, Esdeath suddenly inside a sphere of ice that shatters, but dampens the impact. She flips, slashing and splitting his abdomen open, only for me to appear in front of her, black flames exploding off of my fist and from my elbow, my armor scraping the ground before my fist arcs up into her abdomen. Blood spray from her mouth as she explodes skyward, flipping and spinning.

Tatsumi meets he in the air, slashing, and she flips, snow streaking to her and forming a four-point star around her that spins like a saw blade, sparking against his sword for a moment before deflecting it, only for my own sword to shatter the edges of the four arms. When the arms crash into Tatsumi, they don't cut into him, though the _do_ send him exploding into the ground at a hundred miles an our. Esdeath screams and the ice around her explods into dozens o fspikes, which stab into me like a pin cussion, only for the flames exploding from my right heel to swing my right foot around into the ice suddenly coating her remaining forearm anyway, along with her ice prosthetic. She explodes into the ground in a low crouch, cratering the ground, then grabs the sword she'd left before and now landed beside, instantly beginning to seamlessly fend off Akame again. I launch myself to the ground, leaving the ice spikes in the air behind me, and land with a wide, sweeping slash only for Esdeath to have jumped over the slash. She spins, kicking me aside and I bounce once before exploding into a wall of ice suddenly around us. Then, with a flick of Esdeath's wrist, the air above us is suddenly filled with hundreds of ice spikes. One scratches Akame's cheek, and another stabs into her thigh before she leaps to the wall and is suddenly a blur, streaking through the air and destroying all of the spikes before flashing back at Esdeath and slashing at the same time as I slash from the other side. Esdeath forms a wall of ice on either side, both of our blades bisecting the wall. My flames blast mine into dust as Akame slashes a dozen more times in an instant to obliterate hers. Then, Esdeath is a blur again, once again fending the both of us off. She doesn't hold back either. I get stabbed through the heart here, the eye there. My throat gets slashed. I lose and arm, a leg. She splits me in half twice, once horizontally and the other vertically. Each time, my demon instantly repairs the damage, allowing me to continue. At some point, Akame manages to take off Esdeath's prosthetic. Then, finally, Tatsumi explodes out of the ground to my left, his fist exploding into Esdeath's gut, sending her exploding into the wall of ice, a spray of blood once again coming out of her mouth.

_"You holding up?__"_ I ask my demon.

_"Not if you can't stop getting yourself dismembered!"_ the demon snaps. _"We're not immortal, you know!"_

_"You see who I'm fighting, right?"_ I ask.

Just as I do, Esdeath, now with a new prosthetic, uses the frozen air around us and the snow in the air to extend said prosthetic into a massive ice spike that impales me through the forehead before forming herself a second, along with a new sword, just in time for that sword to snap like a twig as it fails to block Wave's kick, which sends her bouncing along the ground to Tatsumi, who punts her like a football, sending her flipping and spinning into the air. I roar, twisting my head sharply to the side and snapping the ice spike around my head before yanking what's left out, allowing it to heal. I feel my strength dropping like a stone. The demon's just about tapped out. I have maybe one more death before it's permanent. I roar, pitch black flames suddenly encasing me before I explode forward, flashing through the air, my sword stabbing into the ground in front of Sheele just as Tatsumi's stabs into the ground in front of Akame. At the same time, Esdeath suddenly shrieks in rage, a massive body made of ice suddenly flashing into existence around her in time to backhand Wave, sending him exploding into the ice wall where she herself had cratered it before. Then, a moment later, she punched Tatsumi, sending him crashing into Wave, cratering it still further. Bits and pieces began to fall away from the wall as both fell to the ground. Esdeath turned on my, punching, and I roll aside in the air before slamming a punch into her face, rocking her back a step, cracks flashing across the ice's surface, only to instantly reform.

"You little cockroach!" Esdeath shrieks. "Just die already!"

Her ice golem's fists clasp above me and swing downward, exploding into the ground but missing me by a hair. Akame leaps into the air behind Esdeath, moving to smash through the ice entirely, only for Esdeath to smirk and suddenly grow out of the back, her hands clapping hard around the blade, freezing and then shattering it in an instant.

"There goes your best weapon," Esdeath grins.

"Guess again," Akame smirks, just before Sheele flashes past, dragging Akame out of my way.

Esdeath's eyes widen and she twists to look back just as my fist explodes into the ice golem in a massive explosion of pitch black flames. Esdeath screams in pain as her badly burned body spins and flips through the air before exploding out through the weakened point in the ice wall. However, just as she does, a single, massive ice spike drives itself down through the top of my head and into the ground. After a moment, it shatters and I collapse. I try to move, but my body's healing slowly. Finally, Sheele walks over, kneeling down before smirking.

"How the mighty have fallen," her demon says. "What a pathetic fool. No wonder the human you're bonded to is able to control you so freely."

My demon's rage floods my body and my wound seals instantly before I stand, black flames once again erupting from my body. I smirk. I hadn't thought of angering my rage demon for extra power reserves, but it makes sense. I turn back to the ice wall as Mine sprints in and over to Akame to check on her. At the same time, Tatsumi and Wave step up beside me on either side. Then, the dust still filling the break blows away, revealing Esdeath, badly burned, bleeding, covered in bruises, small cuts, one arm missing, the other arm's thumb and index finger gone, and rage filling her features, as well as fear. For the first time in her life, she's afraid. And that makes her dangerous. She screams and explodes into the air with a pair of ice wings, then swipes her hands, ice spikes forming and firing from the air around her in waves. I explode off the ground, Wave and Tatsumi following. I roar, shoving both hands forward and a sea of flames flood upward at her, incinerating her ice spikes before parting before the ice golem she's wearing again, except, this one's three times bigger than the last. Where the last was about fifteen feet tall, this one's forty five feet tall. It punches downward and Wave and I explode forward, each slamming a blow into it at the same time. The golem's entire arm all but explodes outward, destroying more of the ice wall. Esdeath's other arm moves to slash, but Mine fires an orange blast into its upper bicep that cracks it before both of Extase's blades streak up through the center of the blast, slicing the arm off before stabbing into the ice wall. Esdeath shrieks in rage before we explode forward. Wave's fist shines blue just as we both slam a punch into the golem's head, directly in front of Esdeath. A massive explosion of black flames and blue energy obliterates the golem's upper body entirely, as well as burning Esdeath. Then, Tatsumi leaps off of us, his golden armor shining and condensing into a spear with the same four-armed head as his last form of his armor had had before becoming a dragon. Esdeath crosses her arms in front of herself and a massive wall of ice forms in between them, only for Tatsumi to shove the spear forward. The head of the spear meets the ice and explodes, but the spear begins to fade. Then, Tatsumi's true genius shows. His right hand opens, and just as the light of the spear's explosion fades, Murasame's hilt and the last four inches of blade flashes between Tatsumi's hand and Esdeath's chest, the force of the spear's explosion burying the remains of the weapon hilt-deep in her heart.

As black scrip begins to spread from the blade outward over her body, me and Wave's armor flashes and fades, and the three of us fall alongside Esdeath. And then, we're caught. Sheele catches me, falling to her knees and ending up cradling my upper body, Kurome likewise catches Wave, and Mine and Akame together catch Tatsumi, gently setting him down and holding him together, each taking one of his hands. Esdeath, on the other hand, bounces off her head and lies motionless for a moment before standing, swaying heavily and surveying us all in silence for a moment before a small, sad smile forms on her face.

"It's my loss, then," she smiles.

Suddenly, ice encases her entire body, then crumbles, taking her with it. A moment later, the ice wall around us crumbles and the rebel army look around for a moment before beginning to cheer as Najenda rides over to check on us with Suu.

"Is everyone alright?" Najenda asks.

"I've been better," I say. "And Sheele died and got possessed like me."

Akame looks around, frowning. "Where's Leone?"

"I'm here!" Leone shouted, running over with the other two Night Raid members who had been in the palace for their assassination mission. "Aw man! Did I miss it? I wanted to see my girlfriend be a badass!"

Akame laughs. "Actually, my spotlight got stolen by these three. And Jason fought Esdeath as much as I did."

"Hardly!" I snort. "I died at least forty five times fighting this last battle against Esdeath alone. You didn't die once. You're horrifying, Akame. Truly the stuff of nightmares. Or Leone's wet dreams, but that's a different subject."

Everyone laughs. I glance at Leone and my tired smile turns into a deep frown. Lionel's buckle is gone, but she's in her cat form. Her hair's longer and messier than it normally is when she used her Imperial Arms, though, and instead of her normal outfit, she now has gold fur covering the lower outside third of her breasts, then her abdomen and between her legs like a dancer's leotard, except with her skin showing in a "V" that reaches all the way down to her waist, then golden fur beginning again on her upper thighs like stockings, with a thin strip of skin exposed between. Fur covers her arms from her clawed hands to her upper biceps, and her legs are now the hind legs of a lion, and her tail is a little bushier than usual.

"You fused with it," I say, everyone looking to her, eyes widening as they see what I mean, besides Lubbock and Chelsea.

"Yeah," Leone says. "Without it, I probably couldn't have killed the Prime Minister. He broke my buckle, then I ended up fused with the Danger Beast that was used to make the buckle and turned into this."

I hold a hand up and she quirks an eyebrow, taking my hand and I sigh, rolling my eyes. "You always have to play tough. I'll fix that first. Najenda, she's going to need your cape."

A moment later, a golden light shines from my hand and several bullet wounds suddenly appear on her abdomen, partially hidden by her abdomen's fur before sealing. Then, her fur recedes and her hair shortens back to her normal length. Then, the light spreads and a lion-like Danger Beast forms beside her, everyone staring at it as Najenda drapes her cape around the now nude Leone.

"What is..." Leone trails off as the lion licks her face.

"Meet Lionel," I say. "The Danger Beast from your Imperial Arms. He likes you."

Leone squeals and hugs the Danger Beast, who licks his chops, looking around at us all as though trying to decide who to eat first.

"Wow," Akame says. "Your powers really are amazing. Demon-borne or not."

"They have their uses," I say.

"You know," Leone grins. "I never would have expected you, of all people, to be so sweet as to save me."

I raise an eyebrow at her. "What are you talking about? You act as though I don't care about anything or something. I don't know where you've been the last few months, but obviously you weren't paying attention."

Leone stares at me for a moment before everyone from Night Raid begins to laugh. Once everyone's settled down, I promise ask Najenda to have the pieces of the buckle collected and promise to reforged it into a functional pseudo-Imperial-Arms, though without Lionel's spirit, resulting in weakened abilities. It won't be perfect, but Leone's more than happy to trade off some power and regenerative abilities for having the buckle mostly restored. I refuse to reforged Murasame, however, which Akame whole-heartedly agrees with.

* * *

I yawn, sitting up and stretching before Sheele's tail wraps affectionately around my abdomen before her arms drape themselves over my shoulders, her bare breasts pressing against my back.

"Good morning," she coos, voice already laced with arousal, despite us having literally just woken up.

"Really now, Sheele," I say, as her tails slips down to wake up my other brain. "You're going to have to learn to get a grip on yours."

"Hey, it's not my fault," Sheele defends herself halfheartedly, even though I know full well it's not her demon controlling her tail. "She _is_ a lust demon."

"That's true, but she's also not a morning person," I say. "Lust demons are awake at night. This is all you." I twist around, kissing her as my hands cup her face. "I love you."

Then, my demon takes control and snaps her head around backward, her body dropping heavily to the bed. I sigh heavily, pinching the bridge of my eyes as Sheele lays there for a moment before her head snaps back around to the front with a loud series of grinding pops before healing.

"Sorry," I say. "He's a little grumpy today."

"It's alright," Sheele says, kissing me again. "I'm not that fragile anymore."

"And I am eternally grateful for it," I smile, kissing her before standing, beginning to get dressed, Sheele doing the same.

After we're dressed, we head out into the rest of the hideout, seeing the others all beginning to sit down for breakfast. As we eat, we finalize the big decisions. For example, where Sheele and I will be moving to, as we've both agreed to continue working as the new Royal Family's assassination squad, along with Akame, against Tatsumi's wishes. Mine, being pregnant with Tatsumi's child from sometime before Tatsumi's failed execution, apparently, will be moving to the capital with Tatsumi, and Akame and Leone, being the other half of the weird harem they're all in, will be going with them. Sheele and I decided to move out as well, as did Chelsea, leaving the hideout to Najenda and Lubbock, though they also decided to move to the capital. And so, the hideout will be abandoned. As we finish up breakfast and begin to pack, I reflect on recent events. The Emperor was executed, Wave and Kurome got engaged, Sheele and I skipped engagement and went straight to marriage, since we're both no longer able to age and will be together for as long as we live our unnatural lives anyway, and Najenda and Lubbock are considering adopting. Aside from their various personal lives, the Imperial Arms wielders from the war had been organized into a special division within the new kingdom's military, minus the former Night Raid members, who all held onto theirs for the time being.

But once things have settled and the new empire no longer needs assassins, we've all agreed to come together again, minus Najenda and Lubbock, and sail east with Akame. After using Murasame's trump card, the markings it had spread over her body had remained, and it had left her body in a constant state of agony. She had gotten used to it, but once we were no longer needed for dirty work, we've agreed to find an island nation to the east that apparently had something to do with Murasame's creation in order to look for a cure for her condition, since even me and Sheele's demons together can't put an end to it.

"Are you ready?" Sheele asks, pulling me from my thoughts as I reach the door with my sword in one hand and my duffel bag of spare clothes in the other, my silver wedding band catching the light from beside my armor's ring form.

I take one last look back into the hideout, smiling at the memories that play through my head. "Yeah."

She smiles and takes my hand once I've slung my sword across my back. Then, we set out to find our new home and our new life. Not that our new life will be excessively different from our old one, but hey, as long as I have Sheele, I can live with that.

* * *

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